- MM 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


i 


THE  COLOR  LINE 


THE  COLOR  LINE 


IN     BEHALF     OF     THE     UNBORN 

BY 
WILLIAM  BENJAMIN  SMITH 


Consider  the  End 


SOLON 


NEW  YORK 

McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  &  CO. 
MCMVI 


nnr 


Copyright,  1905,  by 
McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  &  CO. 

Published  February,  1905,  N 


Second  Impression. 


To 

3[oim  ^enrg 

in 

Admiration  and  Gratitude 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  ONE         .        ....        .        .        3 

THE   INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE  RACE  ? 

CHAPTER  Two         .        .        .        .        .        .        -      29 

IS  THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR? 

CHAPTER  THREE 75 

NURTURE?   OR  NATURE? 

CHAPTER  FOUR        .        .        .        .        .        .        .     Ill 

PLEA  AND  COUNTERPLEA 

CHAPTER  FIVE          .        . 158 

A  DIP  INTO  THE  FUTURE 

CHAPTER  Six  ........     193 

THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS 


FOREWORD 

THE  following  pages  attempt  a  discussion  of  the 
most  important  question  that  is  likely  to  engage 
the  attention  of  the  American  People  for  many 
years  and  even  generations  to  come.  Compared 
with  the  vital  matter  of  pure  Blood,  all  other 
matters,  as  of  tariff,  of  currency,  of  subsidies,  of 
civil  service,  of  labour  and  capital,  of  education,  of 
forestry,  of  science  and  art,  and  even  of  religion, 
sink  into  insignificance.  For,  to  judge  by  the  past, 
there  is  scarcely  any  conceivable  educational  or 
scientific  or  governmental  or  social  or  religious 
polity  under  which  the  pure  strain  of  Caucasian 
blood  might  not  live  and  thrive  and  achieve  great 
things  for  History  and  Humanity;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  any  kind 
or  degree  of  institutional  excellence  could  per 
manently  stay  the  race  decadence  that  would  fol 
low  surely  in  the  wake  of  any  considerable  con 
tamination  of  that  blood  by  the  blood  of  Africa. 
It  is  this  supreme  and  all-overshadowing 


X  FOREWORD 

importance  of  the  interests  at  stake  that  must 
justify  the  earnestness  and  the  minuteness  with 
which  the  matter  has  been  treated.  The  writer  does 
not  deny  that  he  feels  profoundly  and  intensely  on 
the  subject;  otherwise,  he  would  certainly  never 
thus  have  turned  aside  from  studies  far  more  con 
genial  and  fascinating.  But  he  has  hot  allowed* 
his  feelings  or  any  sentimental  considerations 
whatever  to  warp  his  judgment.  It  has  been  his 
effort  to  make  the  whole  discussion  purely  scien 
tific,  an  ethnological  inquiry,  undisturbed  by  any 
partisan  or  political  influence.  He_  has  had  to 
guard  himself  especially  against"  the  emotion  of 
sympathy,  of  pity  for  the  unfortunate  race,  "  the 
man  of  yesterday, "  which  the  unfeeling  process 
of  Nature  demands  in  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  the 
evolution  of  Humanity. 

It  may  be  well  to  indicate  at  the  outset  the  gen 
eral  movement  of  thought  through  this  volume : 

Chapter  One  in  its  title  strikes  the  keynote. 
In  the  following  pages  the  main  issue  is  stated, 
the  position  of  the  South  is  defined,  and  her  lines 
of  defence  are  indicated.  But  there  is  no  attempt 
to  justify  the  fundamental  assumption  in  the 
Southern  argument. 

In  Chapter  Two  this  shortcoming  is  made 
good.  The  assumed  inferiority  of  both  the  Negro 


FOREWORD  XI 

and  the  Negroid  is  argued  at  length,  and  proved 
by  a  great  variety  of  considerations. 

In  Chapter  Three  the  notion  that  this  inferi 
ority,  now  demonstrated,  is  after  all  merely 
cultural  and  removable  by  Education  or  other 
extra-organic  means,  is  considered  minutely  and 
refuted  in  every  detail  and  under  all  disguises. 

In  Chapter  Four  the  powerful  and  authorita 
tive  plea  of  Dr.  Boas,  for  the  "primitives,"  is 
subjected  to  a  searching  analysis,  with  the  decis 
ive  result  that,  in  spite  of  himself,  this  eminent 
anthropologist,  while  denying  everything  as  a 
whole,  affirms  everything  in  detail  that  is  main 
tained  in  the  preceding  chapters.  Inasmuch  as 
the  Address  of  this  savant  may  be  regarded  as  the 
ne  plus  ultra  of  pro-African  pleading,  both  in 
earnestness  and  in  learning,  it  has  seemed  that  no 
treatment  of  the  subject  would  be  complete  that 
did  not  refute  it  thoroughly  -  "so  fight  I  as  one 
not  beating  the  air. "  To  do  this  was  not  possible 
without  quoting  extensively,  which  is  the  less  to 
be  regretted  as  the  Address  has  been  too  little 
read. 

In  Chapter  Five  the  obvious  and  instant  ques 
tion  is  met.  What  then  is  to  become  of  the  Black 
Man?  The  answer  is  rendered  in  general  terms 
and  is  supported  by  the  remarkable  testimony  of 


Xll  FOREWORD 

the  distinguished  statistician,  Professor  Willcox. 
But  only  general  sociologic  moments  are  re 
garded,  and  the  statistical  argument  in  detail  is 
held  in  reserve. 

In  Chapter  Six  this  omission  is  fully  supplied. 
The  Growth  rate,  the  Birth  rate,  the  Death  rate, 
the  Crime  rate,  and  the  Anthropometry  of  the 
Negro  are  discussed  minutely  from  every  point 
of  view,  and  the  positions  of  the  preceding  chap 
ters  are  bulwarked  and  buttressed  unassailably. 

It  has  been  the  one  aim  of  the  writer,  who  is 
perfectly  convinced  in  his  own  mind,  to  convince 
the  reader.  To  this  end  no  pains  have  been  spared 
and  no  drudgery  avoided.  Since  it  appeared 
necessary  to  regard  the  matter  from  various 
nearly  related  points  of  view,  under  only  slightly 
divergent  angles,  it  has  happened  that  the  same 
argumentative  materials  have  come  to  hand  more 
than  once  in  almost  equivalent  forms.  But  in  this 
there  is  no  disadvantage;  factors  of  such  sover 
eign  potence  do  not  suffer  from  repetition.  The 
whole  discussion  is  biological  in  its  bearing  and 
turns  about  a  few  pivotal  points;  and  these  de 
serve  to  be  stressed  by  every  device  of  emphasis. 
"For  twice  indeed,  yea  thrice,  they  say,  it  is 
good  to  repeat  and  review  the  good. " 

There  remain  yet  certain  important  political 


FOREWORD  xiii 

and  economical  and  even  juridical  aspects  of  the 
subject,  concerning  which  the  writer  has  not  neg 
lected  to  gather  relevant  material  of  evidence; 
but  any  adequate  discussion  would  carry  the 
reader  too  far  afield  and  would  mar  the  unity  of 
the  work  as  it  now  stands.  Accordingly  these  as 
pects  are  left  unregarded. 

The  writer  fancies  one  may  forecast  the  only 
reply  likely  to  be  brought  forward  under  even  a 
thin  guise  of  plausibility.  It  will  be  said,  as  it  is 
said,  that  the  much-dreaded  contamination  of 
blood  is  the  merest  bugaboo.  But  nay!  it  is  a  tre 
mendous  and  instant  peril,  against  which  eternal 
vigilance  is  the  only  safeguard,  in  whose  pres 
ence  it  is  vain  and  fatuous  to  cry  "peace, 
peace"  when  there  is  no  peace,  a  peril  whose 
menace  is  sharpened  by  well-meant  efforts  at  hu 
manity  and  generosity,  by  seemingly  just  de 
mands  for  social  equality  masquerading  as* 'equal 
opportunity."  The  one  adequate  definition  of 
this  "equal  opportunity"  has  been  bravely  given 
by  that  most  able  and  eloquent  Negroid,  Prof. 
William  H.  Councill:  "Will  the  White  man  per 
mit  the  Negro  to  have  an  equal  part  in  the  indus 
trial,  political,  social  and  civil  advantages  of  the 
United  States?  This,  as  I  understand  it,  is  the 
problem. "  All  this  is  quite  beyond  question  to  the 


FOREWORD 

mind  that  cherishes  no  illusions  and  insistently 
beholds  things  as  they  are.  Neither  is  it  less  sure 
that  even  the  Southern  conscience  needs  quick 
ening  at  this  vital  point.  The  writer  has  been 
appalled  at  the  cool  indifference  with  which 
amalgamation  is  contemplated  as  necessary  and 
inevitable  by  certain  highly  intelligent  philanthro 
pists  in  the  Southland.  The  matter  is  delicate  and 
difficult  to  argue,  and  in  the  body  of  the  book  it 
has  perhaps  been  stressed  too  lightly;  but  the 
danger  signals  are  clearly  discernible,  even  as 
they  were  to  Prof.  E.  D.  Cope,  and  it  is  madness 
not  to  heed  them.  If  the  race  barrier  be  removed, 
and  the  individual  standard  of  personal  excel 
lence  be  established,  the  twilight  of  this  century 
will  gather  upon  a  nation  hopelessly  sinking  in 
the  mire  of  Mongrelism. 

It  can  hardly  be  hoped  that  any  reader  will  be 
satisfied  with  the  glimpse  here  disclosed  of  the 
future.  Certainly  not  the  Negro,  nor  his  apolo 
gists;  nor  even  such  as  sympathize  most  fully 
with  the  writer.  The  solemn  secular  processes,  to 
which  the  solution  of  the  problem  is  relegated, 
are  so  very  leisurely  in  their  working,  closing 
down  upon  their  final  result  with  the  delibera 
tion  of  a  glacier,  or  like  some  slowly  convergent 
infinite  series.  But  Nature  is  once  for  all  thus 


FOREWORD  XV 

leaden-footed,  and  it   is   extremely   difficult  to 
quicken  her  pace. 

We  have  bestowed  merely  a  glance  upon  the 
scheme  of  Deportation,  which  is  alas !  not  now  a 
question  of  practical  statesmanship,  though  it 
may  indeed  become  one  sooner  than  we  think. 

However,  the  outlook  is  not  hopeless  to  him 
who  has  a  sense  of  the  world  to  come,  who  lives 
in  his  race,  who  feels  the  solidarity  of  its  present 
with  its  future  as  well  as  with  its  past.  "  Of  men 
that  are  just,  the  true  saviour  is  Time. "  Besides, 
it  seems  not  at  all  strange  that  a  disease,  chronic 
through  centuries,  should  require  centuries  for  its 
cure,  that  the  multiplied  echoes  of  the  curse  of 
African  slavery  should  go  sounding  on,  even  to 
the  years  of  many  generations. 

w.  B.  s. 

Tulane  University, 

25th  October,  1904. 


THE  COLOR  LINE 


CHAPTER   ONE 

THE  INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR  THE  RACE  ? 

Z^2  ttotf  man  join  together 
What  God  hath  put  asunder 

IN  the  controversy  precipitated  by  the  luncheon 
at  the  White  House,  and  embittered  by  more 
recent  procedures,  the  attitude  of  the  South  pre 
sents  an  element  of  the  pathetic.  The  great  world 
is  apparently  hopelessly  against  her.  Three- 
fourths  of  the  virtue,  culture,  and  intelligence  of 
the  United  States  seems  to  view  her  with  pity 
ing  scorn;  the  old  mother,  England,  has  no  word 
of  sympathy,  but  applauds  the  conduct  that  her 
daughter  reprehends;  the  continent  of  Europe 
looks  on  with  amused  perplexity,  as  unable  even 
to  comprehend  her  position,  so  childish  and 
absurd.  Worst  of  all,  she  herself  appears  to  have 
no  far-reaching  voice.  However  ably  or  ear 
nestly  her  daily  journals  may  plead  her  cause, 
their  circle  of  readers  rarely  extends  far  beyond 


4  THE   COLOR  LINE 

her  own  borders :  she  seems  to  be  talking  to  her 
self  or  raving  in  a  dream. 

Under  such  conditions,  why  not  appeal  to  her 
generous  foes,  to  the  Northern  Press,  to  lend 
the  mighty  resonance  of  their  own  voice  to  the 
proclamation  of  the  Southern  plea?  "Their 
tone  has  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their 
words  to  the  end  of  the  world."  But  the  de 
mands  on  their  space  are  overwhelming;  they 
hesitate  before  an  article  of  more  than  fifteen 
pages,  and  they  would  not  needlessly  wound  the 
sensibilities  of  their  readers.  No!  The  Southern 
plea,  if  it  is  to  be  made  effective,  must  be  pre 
sented  in  a  book. 

The  present  writer  professes  neither  authority 
nor  special  fitness  to  speak  for  the  South.  No  one 
but  himself  knows  that  he  is  framing  or  intends 
to  frame  this  defense;  but  the  situation  appeals 
to  him  powerfully,  and  it  is  so  transparent  and 
so  easily  understood  of  any  one  here  in  the  midst 
that  he  cannot  believe  he  commits  any  sensible 
error  in  his  statement  of  the  case. 

To  begin,  then,  it  is  essential  to  any  proper 
conduct  of  the  discussion  that  the  point  at  issue 
be  clearly  defined,  and  that  all  false  issues  be  ex 
cluded  rigorously  and  in  terms.  Unless  we  widely 
err,  much  current  argumentation,  especially  at 


THE    INDIVIDUAL?    OR   THE    RACE?  5 

the  North,  is  perverted  by  the  fatal  fallacy  of 
mistaken  aim.  On  the  other  hand,  we  shall  not 
be  at  any  pains  to  defend  or  excuse  intemperance 
in  the  language  of  Southern  writers  or  speak 
ers;  on  this  head  we  have  no  dispute  with  any 
one  but  are  willing  to  admit,  whether  true  or 
false,  whatever  may  be  charged. 

What,  then,  is  the  real  point  at  issue,  and  what 
does  the  South  stand  for  in  this  contention  —  stand 
alone,  friendless,  despised,  with  the  head  and 
heart,  the  brain  and  brawn,  the  wealth  and 
culture  of  the  civilized  world  arrayed  almost 
solidly  against  her  ?  The  answer  is  simple :  She 
stands  for  blood,  for  the  "continuous  germ- 
plasma"  of  the  Caucasian  Race. 

The  South  cares  nothing,  in  themselves,  for 
the  personal  friendships  or  appreciations  of  high- 
placed  dignitaries  and  men  of  light  and  leading. 
She  must  concede  to  such  and  to  all  Northerners 
and  to  all  Europeans  the  abstract  right  to  choose 
their  associates  and  table  company  as  they  please. 
What  she  does  maintain  is,  that  in  the  South  the 
colour  line  must  be  drawn  firmly,  unflinchingly  - 
without  deviation  or  interruption  of  any  kind 
whatever. 

It  may  be  too  much  to  affirm  that  in  all  extra- 
social  matters  —  in  politics,  in  business,  in  liter- 


6  THE    COLOR   LINE 

ature,  in  science,  in  art,  everywhere  but  in 
society  —  even  the  best  sentiment  or  practice  of 
the  South  is  eager  to  give  the  Negro  strict  justice, 
or  ample  scope,  or  free  opportunity.  Southerners 
are  merely  human ;  and  there  is,  perhaps,  no  great 
historical  example  of  an  inferior  race  or  class 
treated  with  all  proper  consideration  by  the  supe 
rior.  Certainly  our  Northern  friends  will  hardly 
maintain  that  recent  disclosures  clearly  show 
that  their  ruling  corporate  powers  are  humane, 
or  generous,  or  even  barely  just  towards  the  poor 
and  humble,  in  their  administration  of  the  im 
portant  industrial  trusts  which  God  has  so  wisely 
placed  in  their  hands.  They  are  giants,  and  it  is 
the  nature  of  giants  to  press  hard.  At  this  point, 
then,  the  South  is  or  should  be  open  to  conviction. 
It  is  the  part  of  statesmanship,  as  well  as  of  hu 
manity,  continuously  to  adjust  the  relations  of 
classes  —  much  more  so  of  races  —  so  that  the 
largest  interests  involved  may  be  sacredly  con 
served  and  at  the  least  possible  sacrifice  of  any 
smaller  interest  that  may  conflict.  More  can  hard 
ly  be  expected  in  a  world  whose  law  is  strife. 
Tried  by  this  standard,  it  is  very  doubtful  wheth 
er  the  South  falls  even  one  notch  below  the  aver 
age  set  everywhere  by  the  example  of  the  ruling 
class.  If  she  does,  then  let  her  bear  the  blame, 


THE    INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE    RACE  ?  7 

with  neither  excuse  nor  extenuation  for  her  short 
comings.  But  in  the  matter  of  social  separation 
we  can  and  we  will  make  no  concessions  what 
ever.  Neither  dare  we  tolerate  any  violations  of 
our  fundamental  principle  among  ourselves;  nor 
dare  we  sit  calmly  by  and  behold  its  violation  by 
others,  when  that  violation  imperils  our  own 
supreme  interests  and  renders  more  difficult  the 
maintenance  of  our  own  position.  Here,  then, 
is  laid  bare  the  nerve  of  the  whole  matter/x[#""~ 
the  South  justified  in  this  absolute  denial  of  social 
equality  to  the  Negro,  no  matter  what  his  virtues 
or  abilities  or  accomplishments  ?  / 

We  affirm,  then,  that  the  South  is  entirely  right 
in  thus  keeping  open  at  all  times,  at  all  hazards, 
and  at  all  sacrifices  an  impassable  social  chasm 
between  Black  and  White.  This  she  must  do  in 
behalf  of  her  blood,  her  essence,  of  the  stock  of 
her  Caucasian  Race.  To  the  writer  the  correct 
ness  of  this  thesis  seems  as  clear  as  the  sun  —  so 
evident  as  almost  to  forestall  argument;  nor  can 
he  quite  comprehend  the  frame  of  mind  that  can 
seriously  dispute  it.  But  let  us  look  at  it  closely. 
Is  there  any  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  alterna 
tive?  If  we  sit  with  Negroes  at  our  tables,  if  we 
entertain  them  as  our  guests  and  social  equals, 
if  we  disregard  the  colour  line  in  all  other  relations, 


8  THE    COLOR    LINE 

is  it  possible  to  maintain  it  fixedly  in  the  sexual 
relation,  in  the  marriage  of  our  sons  and  daugh 
ters,  in  the  propagation  of  our  species  ?  Unques 
tionably,  No!  It  is  certain  as  the  rising  of  to 
morrow's  sun,  that,  once  the  middle  wall  of  social 
partition  broken  down,  the  mingling  of  the  tides 
of  life  would  begin  instantly  and  proceed  steadily. 
Of  course,  it  would  be  gradual,  but  none  the  less 
sure,  none  the  less  irresistible.  It  would  make 
itself  felt  at  first  most  strongly  in  the  lower  strata 
of  the  white  population ;  but  it  would  soon  invade 
the  middle  and  menace  insidiously  the  very  up 
permost.  Many  bright  Mulattoes  would  ambi 
tiously  woo,  and  not  a  few  would  win,  well-bred 
women  disappointed  in  love  or  goaded  by  im 
pulse  or  weary  of  the  stern  struggle  for  existence. 
As  a  race,  the  Southern  Caucasian  would  be  irre 
versibly  doomed.  For  no  possible  check  could  be 
given  to  this  process  once  established.  Remove 
the  barrier  between  two  streams  flowing  side  by 
side  —  immediately  they  begin  to  mingle  their 
molecules;  in  vain  you  attempt  to  replace  it. 
Not  even  ten  legions  of  Clerk  Maxwell's  demons 
could  ever  sift  them  out  and  restore  the  streams 
to  their  original  purity.  The  moment  the  bar  of 
absolute  separation  is  thrown  down  in  the  South, 
that  moment  the  bloom  of  her  spirit  is  blighted 


THE    INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE    RACE  ?  9 

forever,  the  promise  of  her  destiny  is  annulled, 
the  proud  fabric  of  her  future  slips  into  dust  and 
ashes.  No  other  conceivable  disaster  that  might 
befall  the  South  could,  for  an  instant,  compare 
with  such  miscegenation  within  her  borders. 
Flood  and  fire,  fever  and  famine  and  the  sword  - 
even  ignorance,  indolence,  and  carpet-baggery  - 
she  may  endure  and  conquer  while  her  blood 
remains  pure;  but  once  taint  the  well-spring 
of  her  life,  and  all  is  lost  —  even  honour  itself. 
It  is  this  immediate  jewel  of  her  soul  that  the 
South  watches  with  such  a  dragon  eye,  that  she 
guards  with  more  than  vestal  vigilance,  with  a 
circle  of  perpetual  fire.  The  blood  thereof  is  the 
life  thereof;  he  who  would  defile  it  would  stab  her 
in  her  heart  of  heart,  and  she  springs  to  repulse 
him  with  the  fiercest  instinct  of  self-preservation. 
It  may  not  be  that  she  is  distinctly  conscious  of 
the  immeasurable  interests  at  stake  or  of  the  real 
grounds  of  her  roused  antagonism;  but  the  in 
stinct  itself  is  none  the  less  just  and  true  and 
the  natural  bulwark  of  her  life. 

To  set  forth  great  things  by  small,  we  may 
take  the  instinct  of  the  family,  with  its  imperious 
and  uncompromising  demand  for  absolute  fe 
male  chastity.  It  is  not  here,  in  any  controlling 
measure,  a  question  of  individual  morality.  We 


10  THE    COLOR   LINE 

make  no  such  absolute  demand  upon  men.  We 
regret,  we  condemn,  we  may  infinitely  deplore 
sexual  irregularity  in  son,  or  brother,  or  husband, 
or  father,  or  friend,  but  we  do  not  ostracize;  — 
we  may  forgive,  we  may  honour,  we  may  even 
glorify  the  offender  in  spite  of  his  offense.  But 
for  the  female  dissolute  there  is  no  forgiveness, 
however  we  may  extra-socially  pity  or  even 
admire.  A  double  standard  —  an  abomination! 
But  while  none  may  approve,  yet  every  one  ad 
mits  and  applies  it  —  for  reasons  deeper  than 
our  conscious  logic,  and  irresistible.  For  the 
offense  of  the  man  is  individual  and  limited, 
while  that  of  the  woman  is  general,  and  strikes 
mortally  at  the  existence  of  the  family  itself. 

Now  the  idea  of  the  race  is  far  more  sacred 
than  that  of  the  family.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  most 
sacred  thing  on  earth ;  and  he  who  offends  against 
it  is  an  apostate  from  his  kind  and  mounts  the 
apex  of  sacrilege. 

At  this  point  we  hear  some  one  exclaim,  "Not 
so  fast !  To  sit  at  table,  to  mingle  freely  in  society 
with  certain  persons,  does  not  imply  you  would 
marry  them."  Certainly  not,  in  every  case.  We 
may  recognize  socially  those  whom  we  person 
ally  abhor.  This  matters  not,  however;  for  wher 
ever  social  commingling  is  admitted,  there  the 


THE   INDIVIDUAL?    OR   THE   RACE?  11 

possibility  of  intermarriage  must  be  also  admit 
ted.  It  becomes  a  mere  question  of  personal  prefer 
ence,  of  like  and  dislike.  Now,  there  is  no  account 
ing  for  tastes.  It  is  ridiculous  to  suppose  that  no 
Negroes  would  prove  attractive  to  any  whites.  The 
possible  would  become  actual  —  as  certainly  as 
you  will  throw  double-double  sixes,  if  only  you 
keep  on  throwing.  To  be  sure,  where  the  number 
of  Negroes  is  almost  vanishingly  small,  as  in  the 
North  and  in  Europe,  there  the  chances  of  such 
mesalliances  are  proportionally  divided;  some 
may  even  count  them  negligible.  But  in  the 
South,  where  in  many  districts  the  Black  out 
numbers  the  White,  they  would  be  multiplied 
immensely,  and  crosses  would  follow  with  in 
creasing  frequency. 

It  is  only  the  sense  of  blood  superiority,  the 
pride  of  race,  that  has  hitherto  protected  the 
white  labourer.  Break  this  down  or  abate  it, 
and  he  sinks  swiftly  to  the  level  of  the  mongrel. 
Laugh  as  you  will  at  the  haughtiness  of  the  igno 
rant  Southerner,  at  his  scorn  of  the  Negro,  per 
haps  his  superior,  it  is  this  very  race  self-respect 
that  is  the  rock  of  his  salvation.  As  Bernhard 
Moses  points  out,  it  was  because  the  Anglo-Saxon 
so  cherished  this  feeling  that  he  refused  to  amal 
gamate  with  the  Indians  —  a  proud  and  in  some 


12  THE    COLOR   LINE 

ways  superior  race  —  but  drove  them  relentlessly, 
and  often,  it  may  be,  unrighteously  before  him 
into  the  sea.  It  was  just  because  the  Spaniard, 
though  otherwise  proud  enough,  did  not  cherish 
this  feeling,  that  he  did  amalgamate  with  the 
victims  of  his  greed  and  descend  into  hopeless 
depths  of  hybridization.  So  far,  then,  from  doing 
aught  to  weaken  this  sentiment,  we  should  do 
our  utmost  to  strengthen  it;  we  should  studious 
ly  avoid  offending  it.  But  social  equality  must 
deadly  wound  it  and  hence  drag  miscegenation 
and  all  South  America  in  its  train. 

But  some  may  deny  that  the  mongrelization 
of  the  Southern  people  would  offend  the  race 
notion  —  would  corrupt  or  degrade  the  Southern 
stock  of  humanity.  If  so,  then  such  a  one  has  yet 
to  learn  the  largest-writ  lessons  of  history  and 
the  most  impressive  doctrines  of  biological 
science.lThat  the  Negro  is  markedly  inferior 
to  the  Caucasian  is  proved  both  craniologically 
and  by  six  thousand  years  of  planet-wide  ex 
perimentation;  and  that  the  commingling  of 
inferior  with  superior  must  lower  the  higher  is 
just  as  certain  as  that  the  half-sum  of  two  and 
six  is  only  four.*  T 

If  accepted  science  teaches  anything  at  all,  it 

*  For  detailed  proof  of  these  propositions,  see  the  following  chapters. 


OR  THE  RACE  ? 

teaches  that  the  heights  of  being  in  civilized  man 
have  been  reached  along  one  path  and  one  only 
-the  path  of  Selection,  of  the  preservation  of 
favoured  individuals  and  of  favoured  races.  The 
deadly  enemy  of  the  whole  process  of  uplifting, 
of  the  Drang  nach  oben,  of  the  course  of  history 
itself,  is  pammixia.  Only  give  it  play,  and  it 
would  inevitably  level  all  life  into  one  undis 
tinguished  heap.  Now,  amalgamation  of  Black 
and  White  is  only  a  special  case  of  pammixia. 
The  hope  of  the  human  lies  in  the  superhuman ; 
and  the  possibility  of  the  superhuman  is  given  in 
selection,  in  natural  and  rational  selection,  among 
the  children  that  are  to  be,  of  the  parents  of  the 
men  to  comQ^The  notion  of  social  racial  equal 
ity  is  thus  seen  to  be  abhorrent  alike  to  instinct 
and  to  reason ;  for  it  flies  in  the  face  of  the  proc 
ess  of  the  suns,  it  runs  counter  to  the  methods 
of  the  mind  of  God. 

It  is  idle  to  talk  of  education  and  civilization 
and  the  like  as  corrective  or  compensative  agen 
cies.*  All  are  weak  and  beggarly  as  over  against 
the  almightiness  of  heredity,  the  omniprepo- 
tence  of  the  transmitted  germ-plasma.  Let  this 
be  amerced  of  its  ancient  rights,  let  it  be  shorn  in 
some  measure  of  its  exceeding  weight  of  ances- 

*  For  minuter  treatment  of  this  point,  see  the  following  chapters. 


14  THE    COLOR   LINE 

tral  glory,  let  it  be  soiled  in  its  millennial  purity 
and  integrity,  and  nothing  shall  ever  restore  it; 
neither  wealth,  nor  culture,  nor  science,  nor  art, 
nor  morality,  nor  religion  —  not  even  Christianity 
itself.  Here  and  there  these  may  redeem  some 
happy  spontaneous  variation,  some  lucky  freak 
of  nature ;  but  nothing  more  —  they  can  never  re 
deem  the  race.  If  this  be  not  true,  then  history 
and  biology  are  alike  false;  then  Darwin  and 
Spencer,  Hseckel  and  Weismann,  Mendel  and 
Pearson,  have  lived  and  laboured  in  vain. 

Equally  futile  is  the  reply,  so  often  made  by 
our  opponents,  that  miscegenation  has  already 
progressed  far  in  the  Southland,  as  witness  mil 
lions  of  Mulattoes.  Certainly;  but  do  not  such 
objectors  know  in  their  hearts  that  their  reply 
is  no  answer,  but  is  utterly  irrelevant  ?  We  admit 
and  deplore  the  fact  that  unchastity  has  poured 
a  broad  stream  of  white  blood  into  black  veins; 
but  we  deny,  and  perhaps  no  one  will  affirm, 
that  it  has  poured  even  the  slenderest  appreciable 
rill  of  Negro  blood  into  the  veins  of  the  Whites. 
We  have  no  excuse  whatever  to  make  for  these 
masculine  incontinences;  we  abhor  them  as  dis 
graceful  and  almost  bestial.  But,  however  degrad 
ing  and  even  unnatural,  they  in  nowise,  not  even 
in  the  slightest  conceivable  degree,  defile  the 


THE    INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE    RACE  ?  15 

Southern  Caucasian  blood.  That  blood  to-day  is 
absolutely  pure ;  and  it  is  the  inflexible  resolution 
of  the  South  to  preserve  that  purity,  no  matter  how 
dear  the  cost.  We  repeat,  then,  it  is  not  a  question 
of  individual  morality,  nor  even  of  self-respect.  He 
who  commerces  with  a  negress  debases  himself 
and  dishonours  his  body,  the  temple  of  the 
Spirit;  but  he  does  not  impair,  in  anywise,  the 
dignity  or  integrity  of  his  race;  he  may  sin  against 
himself  and  others,  and  even  against  his  God, 
but  not  against  the  germ-plasma  of  his  kind. 

Does  some  one  reply  that  some  Negroes  are 
better  than  some  Whites,  physically,  mentally, 
morally  ?  We  do  not  deny  it ;  but  this  fact,  again, 
is  without  pertinence.  It  may  very  well  be  that 
some  dogs  are  superior  to  some  men.  It  is  absurd 
to  suppose  that  only  the  elect  of  the  Blacks 
would  unite  with  only  the  non-elect  of  the  Whites. 
Once  started,  the  pammixia  would  spread  through 
all  classes  of  society  and  contaminate  possibly 
or  actually  all.  Even  a  little  leaven  may  leaven  the 
whole  lump. 

Far  more  than  this,  however,  even  if  only  very 
superior  Negroes  formed  unions  with  non-supe 
rior  Whites,  the  case  would  not  be  altered ;  for  it 
is  a  grievous  error  to  suppose  that  the  child  is 
born  of  its  proximate  parents  only;  it  is  born 


16  THE    COLOR    LINE 

of  all  its  ancestry;  it  is  the  child  of  its  race.  The 
eternal  past  lays  hand  upon  it  and  upon  all 
its  descendants.  However  weak  the  White,  be 
hind  him  stands  Europe;  however  strong  the 
Black,  behind  him  lies  Africa. 

Preposterous,  indeed,  is  this  doctrine  that  per 
sonal  excellence  is  the  true  standard,  and  that  only 
such  Negroes  as  attain  a  certain  grade  of  merit 
should  or  would  be  admitted  to  social  equality. 
A  favourite  evasion!  The  Independent,  The  Na 
tion,  The  Outlook,  the  whole  North  —  all  point 
Admiringly  to  Mr.  Washington,  and  exclaim: 
/'  But  only  see  what  a  noble  man  he  is  —  so  much 
better  than  his  would-be  superiors!"  So,  too,  a 
distinguished  clergyman,  when  asked  whether  he 
would  let  his  daughter  marry  a  Negro,  replied: 
"We  wish  our  daughters  to  marry  Christian 
gentlemen."  Let,  then,  the  major  premise  be,  "All 
Christian  gentlemen  are  to  be  admitted  to  social 
equality; "  and  add,  if  you  will,  any  desired  degree 
of  refinement  or  education  or  intellectual  prowess 
as  a  condition.  Does  not  every  one  see  that  any 
such  test  would  be  wholly  impracticable  and 
nugatory  ?  If  Mr.  Washington  be  the  social  equal 
of  Roosevelt  and  Eliot  and  Hadley,  how  many 
others  will  be  the  social  equals  of  the  next  circle, 
and  the  next,  and  the  next,  in  the  long  descent 


THE   INDIVIDUAL?    OR   THE   RACE?  17 

from  the  White  House  and  Harvard  to  the  miner 
and  the  rag-picker  ?  And  shall  we  trust  the  hot, 
unreasoning  blood  of  youth  to  lay  virtues  and 
qualities  so  evenly  in  the  balance  and  decide  just 
when  some  "  olive-coloured  suitor "  is  enough  a 
"Christian  gentleman"  to  claim  the  hand  of 
some  simple-hearted  milk-maid  or  some  school- 
ma'am  "past  her  bloom/'?  The  notion  is  too 
ridiculous  for  refutations^  the  best  Negro  in  the 
land  is  the  social  equal  of  the  best  Caucasian, 
then  it  will  be  hard  to  prove  that  the  lowest 
White  is  higher  than  the  lowest  Black;  the  prin 
ciple  of  division  is  lost,  and  complete  social 
equality  is  established.  We  seem  to  have  read 
somewhere  that,  when  the  two  ends  of  one 
straight  segment  coincide  with  the  two  ends  of 
another,  the  segments  coincide  throughout  their 
whole  extent. 

But  even  suppose  that  only  the  lower  strata  of 
Whites  mingle  with  the  upper  strata  of  Negroes, 
the  result  would  be  more  slowly,  but  not  the 
less  surely,  fatal.  The  interpenetration  in  our 
democratic  society  is  too  thorough.  Here  and 
there  the  Four  Hundred  may  isolate  themselves, 
but  only  for  a  time  and  imperfectly.  Who  knows 
when  the  scion  of  a  millionaire  may  turn  into  a 
motorman,  or  the  son  of  a  peasant  hew  his  way 


18  THE    COLOR   LINE 

to  the  Capitol  ?  Let  the  mongrel  poison  assail  the 
humbler  walks  of  life,  and  it  will  spread  like  a 
bubonic  plague  through  the  higher.  The  stand 
ing  of  the  South  would  be  lost  irretrievably. 
Though  her  blood  might  still  flow  pure  in  myriad 
veins,  yet  who  could  prove  it  ?  The  world  would 
turn  away  from  her,  and  point  back  the  finger 
of  suspicion,  and  whisper  "Unclean!" 

Just  here  we  must  insist  that  the  South,  in  this 
tremendous  battle  for  the  race,  is  fighting  not  for 
herself  only,  but  for  her  sister  North  as  well.  It 
is  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that  one  can  be 
smutched  and  the  other  remain  immaculate.  Up 
from  the  Gulf  regions  the  foul  contagion  would 
let  fly  its  germs  beyond  the  lakes  and  mountains. 
The  floods  of  life  mingle  their  waters  over  all  our 
land.  Generations  might  pass  before  the  darken 
ing  tinge  could  be  seen  distinctly  above  the  Ohio, 
but  it  would  be  only  a  question  of  time.  The 
South  alone  would  suffer  total  eclipse,  but  the 
dread  penumbra  would  deepen  insensibly  over 
all  the  continent. 

Well,  then,  the  determination  and  attitude  of 
the  South  are  just  and  holy  and  good,  and  we 
may  now  advance  to  another  question.  Granted 
the  completest  social  separation  in  the  South, 
where  the  danger  is  instant  and  fearful,  is  it  also 


THE   INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE    RACE  ?  19 

right  or  demanded  in  the  North,  where  the  dan 
ger  is  distant  or  wholly  unreal?  Why  not  social 
separation  and  the  race  standard  in  the  South, 
but  social  equality  and  the  standard  of  personal 
merit  in  the  North?  We  apprehend  that  such 
will  be  the  position  of  many  fair-minded  men 
at  the  North,  and  perhaps  we  may  hope  for  no 
greater  concession.  Such  a  compromise,  if  car 
ried  out  to  the  letter  and  its  purpose  and  spirit 
everywhere  boldly  proclaimed  and  distinctly  un 
derstood,  might  indeed  be  accepted  as  a  modus 
vivendi.  If  the  Northern  Press  and  Pulpit  should 
speak  on  this  wise:  "You  Southerners  mistake 
us  entirely.  We  recoil  with  your  own  horror  from 
the  idea  of  a  hybridized  Dixie;  God  forbid  that 
you  should  '  herd  with  narrow  foreheads,  vacant 
of  our  glorious  gains ' !  We  too  eschew  the  notion 
of  race  equality.  We  do  not  practise,  we  do  not 
preach  it.  We  applaud  your  inflexible  resolution 
to  keep  the  Caucasian  blood  uncorrupt  and  con 
secrated  to  the  highest  ideals  of  humanity.  Only, 
we  would  generously  remember  high  achieve 
ments  and  reward  exceptional  merit  with  recog 
nition,  but  always  without  will  or  desire  to  dis 
turb  your  social  order  or  to  debase  the  coin  of 
your  White  civilization.  We  hold  out  no  false 
hopes,  we  encourage  no  vain  ambitions,  we  flat- 


20  THE    COLOR   LINE 

ter  no  absurd  conceits,  we  sow  no  seeds  of  dis 
content  or  discord."  If  such  notes  rang  out 
from  the  moulders  and  wielders  of  the  Northern 
mind,  the  South  would  rejoice  with  joy  unspeak 
able.  She  might  then  pass  by  unnoticed  what  now 
excites  her  protest.  But  alas !  such  notes  are  rare 
ly,  if  ever,  heard.  Instead,  it  is  constantly  reiterat 
ed  that  the  South  is  the  victim  of  "unreason 
ing  prejudice,"  that  she  is  old-fogy,  antiquated, 
ignorant,  and  without  liberalizing  experience  of 
the  larger  world.  Her  plea  for  race  integrity  is 
thrust  aside  as  not  worth  hearing  or  is  answered 
at  best  with  fine  scorn  and  lofty  contempt.  From 
such  Northern  utterances  it  seems  impossible  to 
draw  any  conclusion  but  that  very  many  would 
be  quite  willing  to  see  perfect  equality  of  the 
races  established  in  the  South,  even  with  its 
inevitable  corollary  of  mongrelization.*  It  is  this 
painful  consciousness,  that  the  central  dogma  of 
her  civilization  finds  apparently  so  little  favour 
beyond  the  Potomac,  that  so  alarms  the  South 
and  makes  her  so  supersensitive  as  to  Northern 
practice.  Examples,  otherwise  trifling,  acquire 
deep  interest  when  set  to  illustrate  some  vital 
principle. 

*  For  documentary  proof  that  the  utmost  extreme  of  miscegenation  has 
been  zealously  preached,  and  on  quasi-scientific  grounds,  see  infra, 
pp.  71,  72,  126-9. 


THE    INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE    RACE  ?  21 

To  the  North,  so  superior  in  all  the  tokens  of 
development,  the  world  looks  for  the  pattern. 
Her  conduct  counts  as  the  model.  The  Negroes 
themselves  cannot  be  expected  to  distinguish  be 
tween  the  Northerner  North  and  the  Northerner 
South,  nor  to  reflect  that  the  wise  man  howls  with 
the  wolves,  and  very  naturally  feel  themselves 
the  victims  of  gross  injustice. 

And  herein  lies  the  profound  and  disastrous 
significance  of  the  Washington  incident  and  its 
fellows.  They  are  open  proclamations  from  the 
housetops  of  society  that  the  South  is  radically 
wrong,  that  no  racial  distinctions  are  valid  in 
social  life,  that  only  personal  qualities  are  to  be 
regarded.  The  necessary  inference  is  the  perfect 
social  equality  of  the  races,  as  races,  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  colour  line  in  society,  in  the  family,  in 
the  home.  The  unescapable  result  would  be  the 
mongrelization  of  the  South  and  her  reduction 
below  the  level  of  Mexico  and  Central  America.* 

Our  opponents,  however,  are  not  yet  left  with 
out  rejoinder.  They  will  and  do  affirm  that  all 
such  incidents  are  only  trivial,  that  the  noisy 
protest  of  the  South  is  a  mere  "tempest  in  a  tea 
pot."  In  a  certain  sense  this  is  true.  The  prece- 

*  As  to  the  natural  effect  of  such  propaganda  on  the  Negroes  themselves, 
let  the  present  epidemic  of  crime  and  lynching  bear  witness. 


22  THE   COLOR   LINE 

dent  at  the  White  House  has  found  and  will 
find  no  acceptance  in  the  Southland.  Not  one 
door  of  equality  will  be  loosened  in  its  closure, 
but  the  bolts  will  be  fastened  firmer,  the  gates 
will  be  guarded  more  narrowly.  However,  it  is 
equally  true  that  the  South  could  not  overlook 
such  an  incident  in  such  a  quarter.  The  treasure 
she  has  to  keep  is  beyond  rubies;  the  watchmen 
on  her  towers  must  neither  slumber  nor  sleep. 
She  is  safe,  but  only  because  of,  and  not  in  de 
fault  of,  unresting  vigilance. 

We  congratulate  our  friends  in  the  North  that 
they  can  play  with  fire  without  fear  of  burns; 
that  they  can  wine  and  dine  amiable  and  inter 
esting  Negroes  as  rare  birds  of  passage,  with 
no  thought  of  ulterior  consequences  —  at  least,  to 
themselves.  Their  wealth,  their  power,  their  cul 
ture,  their  grandeur,  but  more  than  all  else,  their 
excessive  preponderance  in  numbers,  preclude 
the  thought  that  in  many  generations  their  blood 
could  be  perceptibly  tinged  with  tides  from 
Africa.  With  us  of  the  South,  alas!  the  whole 
situation  is  quite  another.  They  may  safely 
smile  at  such  an  incident  as  an  empty  scabbard; 
but  to  us  it  is  a  drawn  dagger. 

But  the  question  still  remains:  Why  does  the 
South,  if  she  be  right  in  this  matter,  find  the 


THE   INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR   THE   RACE  ?  23 

virtue  and  intelligence  of  the  world  arrayed 
against  her  ?  We  answer,  the  overmass  of  adverse 
authority  is  indeed  immense,  but  it  is  weightless. 
The  testimony  of  the  North  and  of  Europe  is 
hardly  more  relevant  than  would  be  that  of  the 
Martians.  For  in  neither  has  the  race  question 
yet  presented  itself  as  a  serious  practical  matter; 
for  them  the  Black  Peril  has  no  existence.  Hence 
their  treatment  of  the  subject  is  merely  academic 
and  sentimental.  They  have  generous  ethical 
ideas,  respectable  but  well-worn  and  overworked 
maxims,  high  humanitarian  principles;  and  these 
they  ride  horseback.  For  them  the  Negro  is  a 
black  swan,  a  curious  and  interesting  specimen 
in  natural  history;  and  they  have  no  hesitance  in 
extending  their  sympathy,  their  hospitality,  and 
their  cooperation.  They  remember  that  God 
"  hath  made  of  one  (blood)  all  nations  of  men  for 
to  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth,"  but  forget 
that  the  author  of  this  noble  sentiment  was  not 
an  ethnologist;  they  pity  "the  nation's  ward"  as 
the  victim  of  centuries  of  oppression,  and  to  the 
eyes  of  their  faith  the  mount  of  his  transfigu 
ration  gleams  close  at  hand.  But  the  practical 
problem  never  confronts  them  in  its  unrelieved 
difficulties  and  dangers.  The  possibility  of  blood 
contamination  is  not  suggested  to  them,  or  at 


24  THE    COLOR   LINE 

least  it  never  comes  home  to  them;  and  they 
yield  freely  to  their  philanthropic  impulses,  not 
thinking  whither  these  would  lead  them,  not  see 
ing  the  end  from  the  beginning.  Southern  hearts 
are  not  less  benevolent  than  Northern,  but  South 
ern  eyes  are  of  necessity  in  this  matter  wide  open, 
while  most  others  are  shut. 

But  once  let  Northern  and  European  eyes 
catch  a  clear  glimpse  of  the  actual  peril  of  the 
situation;  once  let  the  problem  step  forth  before 
them  in  a  definite  concrete  form  and  call  for 
immediate  solution;  once  let  the  sharp  question 
pierce  the  national  heart,  "  Shall  I  or  shall  I  not 
blend  my  Caucasian,  world-ruling,  world-con 
quering  blood  with  the  servile  strain  of  Africa  ?" 
and  can  there  be  any  doubt  of  the  answer  ?  The 
race  instinct  is  now  slumbering  in  the  North  and 
Europe,  and  not  strangely,  for  there  is  nothing  to 
keep  it  awake ;  but  it  is  not  extinct,  it  exists  and 
is  ready  to  spring  up  on  occasion  into  fierce  and 
resistless  activity.  Of  this  fact  our  treatment  of 
the  Chinese  has  already  furnished  a  striking 
illustration.  We  tolerated  and  even  petted  these 
industrious  'Orientals  —  certainly  greatly  the  Ne 
gro's  superior  —  so  long  as  they  were  few  in  num 
ber  and  in  no  way  embarrassing.  But  at  the  first 
suggestion  that  they  might  come  in  droves  and 


THE    INDIVIDUAL  ?    OR    THE    RACE  ?  25 

derange  our  labour  system  or  alter  the  type  of 
our  civilization,  there  burst  forth  all  over  the 
North  a  vehement  protest,  "in  might  as  a  flame 
of  fire,"  that  swept  everything  before  it  and 
hurled  back  the  Chinaman  into  the  ocean  and 
barred  our  ports  unyieldingly  against  him.  The 
case  against  Chinese  immigration  was  not  one- 
hundredth  so  strong  as  against  the  social  equality 
of  the  Negro ;  in  fact,  there  was  much  to  be  said 
against  our  restrictive  legislation,  and  much  was 
said  both  ably  and  eloquently.  But  the  strongest 
arguments  could  not  make  themselves  heard; 
the  race  instinct,  that  instinct  preservative  of  all 
instincts,  was  infinitely  stronger,  and  easily  tri 
umphed.  Let  us  not  forget,  either,  the  recent  in 
cidents  at  Northwestern  University  and  else 
where,  which  show  clearly  that  the  "prejudice," 
if  you  please  so  to  call  it,  against  the  Negro  is 
hardly  less  strong,  when  aroused,  even  now  in 
Chicago  than  in  New  Orleans. 

But  some  one  may  say,  if  all  this  be  true,  if  the 
race  instinct  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  really  so 
mighty  and  imperious,  then  there  is  no  danger 
that  it  will  not  assert  itself,  if  need  be;  and  why 
all  this  pother  about  it  ?  We  answer,  there  is 
really  no  danger  while  the  instinct  is  aroused, 
and  therefore,  but  only  therefore,  the  South  is 


26  THE    COLOR   LINE 

safe.  What  we  deprecate  is  the  systematic  war 
fare  that  is  waged  in  some  quarters  against  this 
instinct  as  a  mere  unenlightened  "prejudice" 
whereof  we  should  be  ashamed — the  attempt  to 
battle  it  down  or  else  to  drug  it  to  sleep  in  the 
name  of  morality  or  religion  or  higher  human 
ity.  When  our  Northern  brothers,  by  precept  and 
by  example,  throw  the  whole  weight  of  their  im 
mense  authority  in  favour  of  a  practice  that  would 
be  ruinous  to  the  South,  are  they  walking  accord 
ing  to  love  ? 

We  do  not  deny  that  there  may  be  cases  that 
move  our  sympathy;  that  appeal  strongly  to  our 
sense  of  fair  play,  of  right  between  man  and  man. 
In  and  of  itself,  it  may  sound  strange  and  unjust 
and  even  foolish  to  deny  to  Booker  Washington 
a  seat  at  the  table  of  a  white  man,  even  should 
he  be  distinctly  Mr.  Washington's  inferior.  But 
the  matter  must  not  be  decided  in  and  of  itself  - 
no  man  either  lives  for  himself  or  dies  for  himself. 
It  must  be  judged  in  its  larger  bearings,  by  its 
universal  interests,  where  it  lays  hold  upon  the 
ages,  under  the  aspect  of  eternity.  We  refuse 
to  let  the  case  rest  in  the  low  and  narrow  category 
of  Duty  to  the  Individual;  we  range  it  where  it 
belongs,  in  the  higher  and  broader  category  of 
Obligation  to  the  Race. 


THE   INDIVIDUAL  ?   OR  THE   RACE  ?  27 

And  this  conducts  us  to  a  final  remark.  Even  at 
the  risk  of  a  sits  Minervam  we  venture  to  correct 
a  great  journal,  The  Outlook,  in  one  of  its  state 
ments.  It  assures  its  readers  that  the  recent  criti 
cism  does  not  represent  the  real  South  of  intelli 
gence,  generosity,  and  true  breeding,  but  is  a 
survival  in  a  few  persons,  who  have  not  had 
opportunities  of  large  contact  with  the  world  —  of 
an  antiquated  and  incomprehensible  prejudice. 
Such  words  are  doubtless  well-meant;  but  they 
are  ill-meaning,  and  if  we  understand  them  at 
all,  they  invert  the  facts  of  the  case.  We  have 
some  acquaintance  with  some  of  the  best  ele 
ments  of  the  Southern  society,  some  of  the  best 
representatives  in  nearly  all  the  walks  of  South 
ern  life.  We  believe  the  virtue  and  intelligence 
of  "the  real  South"  are  eminently  conserva 
tive,  earnestly  deprecate  intemperance  in  lan 
guage,  and  are  sworn  enemies  to  sectional  ani 
mosity.  Perhaps,  in  their  zeal  to  cultivate  the 
friendliest  relations  with  their  Northern  brethren, 
they  may  guard  their  expressions  too  carefully 
and  repress  their  true  feelings.  But  he  who  sup 
poses  that  the  South  will  ever  waver  a  hair's 
breadth  from  her  position  of  uncompromising 
hostility  to  any  and  every  form  of  social  equality 
between  the  races,  deceives  himself  only  less  than 


28  THE    COLOR   LINE 

that  other  who  mistakes  her  race  instinct,  the 
palladium  of  her  future,  for  an  ignorant  preju 
dice  and  who  fails  to  perceive  that  her  reso 
lution  to  maintain  White  racial  supremacy  with 
in  her  borders  is  deepest-rooted  and  most  im 
mutable  precisely  where  her  civic  virtue,  her 
intelligence,  and  her  refinement  are  at  their 
highest  and  best. 


CHAPTER  TWO 

IS   THE   NEGRO   INFERIOR? 

All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh; 

Star  differeth  from  star  in  glory 

I.  Cor.  xv.  39,  41 

IN  the  foregoing  discussion,  it  did  not  seem 
well  to  interrupt  the  current  of  thought  by  any 
proof  of  the  assumed  inferiority  of  the  Negro,  or 
of  the  degeneracy  induced  by  the  intermixture 
of  types  too  widely  diverse. 

Yet  these  assumptions  are,  indeed,  the  two 
hinges  of  the  whole  controversy.  Once  conceded 
the  racial  inferiority  of  the  Black  and  the  half 
way  nature  of  the  half-breed,  and  the  general 
contention  of  the  South  is  proved,  her  general 
attitude  justified.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that 
the  doughtiest  champions  of  equality,  in  their 
very  latest  deliverances,  find  no  choice  left  them 


30  THE   COLOR   LINE 

but  to  deny  that  the  Negro  is  an  inferior  or  a 
backward  race. 

Such,  by  way  of  high  example,  are  two  world- 
renowned  metropolitan  journals,  whose  general 
excellence  and  powerful  influence  for  good  in  our 
civic  life  cannot  be  disputed,  but  whose  intense 
straining  for  Justice  and  Equity  in  the  present 
has  utterly  blinded  them  no  less  to  obvious  facts 
and  principles  of  science  than  to  the  highest  and 
holiest  rights  of  humanity  in  the  future.  The 
one,  in  speaking  of  racial  "inferiors,"  incloses 
the  word  in  contemptuous  guillemets  and  de 
clares  that  when  Mr.  Darwin  says:  "Some  of 
them  —  for  instance,  the  negro  and  the  European 
—  are  so  distinct  that,  if  specimens  had  been 
brought  to  a  naturalist  without  any  further  infor 
mation,  they  would  undoubtedly  have  been  con 
sidered  by  him  as  good  and  true  species,"  he 
"raises  no  question  of  superior  or  inferior;"  and 
it  adds,  "Nature  knows  no  forwrard  or  back 
ward  races,  fauna  or  flora"  —  an  oracle  whose  real 
meaning  can  only  be  guessed  at. 

The  other  is  more  specific.  It  maintains: 
"Physically,  the  negro  is  equal  to  the  Caucasian. 
He  is  as  tall  and  as  strong.  He  has  all  the  phys 
ical  basis  and  all  the  brain  capacity  necessary 
for  the  development  of  intellectual  power.  .  . 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  31 

No  evidence  has  yet  been  adduced  which  proves 
that  the  Negro  is  physically,  intellectually,  essen 
tially,  necessarily  an  inferior  race."  . 
"The  assumption  that  the  Caucasian  is  an  es 
sentially  superior  race  .  .  .  is  provincial, 
unintelligent  and  unchristian." 

When  we  first  meet  with  such  denials,  we  are 
almost  dumbfounded;  we  rub  our  eyes  and  ex 
claim  with  Truthful  James : 

Do  I  sleep  ?     Do  I  dream  ? 

Do  I  wonder  and  doubt  ? 

Are  things  what  they  seem  ? 

Or  is  visions  about  ? 

Is  our  civilization  a  failure  ? 

Or  is  the  Caucasian  played  out? 

But  on  recovery  from  the  shock,  the  shining  pa 
geant  of  all  the  ages  begins  to  file  interminably 
before  the  imagination.  The  triumphs  of  the 
Indo-European  and  Semitic  races,  the  stories  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh,  of  Thebes  and  Memphis, 
of  Rome  and  Athens  and  Jerusalem,  of  Delhi  and 
of  Bagdad,  of  the  Pyramids  and  of  the  Parthenon 
— the  radiant  names  of  Hammurabi  and  Zarathu- 
stra  and  Moses  and  the  Buddha  and  Mohammed, 
of  Homer  and  Plato  and  Phidias  and  Socrates 
and  Pindar  and  Pythagoras,  and  the  mightiest 


32  THE    COLOR    LINE 

Julius,  and  the  imperial  philosophers,  and  their 
peers  without  number,  the  endless  creations  of 
art  and  science  and  religion  and  law  and  liter 
ature  and  every  other  form  of  activity,  the  full- 
voiced  choir  of  all  the  Muses,  the  majestic  moral 
ity,  the  hundred-handed  philosophy,  the  mani 
fold  wisdom  of  civilization  —  all  of  this  infinite 
cloud  of  witnesses  gather  swarming  upon  us 
from  the  whole  firmanent  of  the  past  and  pro 
claim  with  pentecostal  tongue  the  glory  and  su 
premacy  of  Caucasian  man.  It  seems  impossible 
to  represent  in  human  speech,  or  by  any  symbols 
intelligible  to  the  human  mind,  the  variety  and 
immensity  of  this  consentient  testimony  of  all 
historic  time  and  place.  Not  to  be  overwhelmed 
and  overawed,  much  more  convinced,  by  such  a 
prodigious  spectacle  of  evidence,  is  to  gaze  at 
midnoon  into  the  heavens  and  cry  out,  "Where 
is  the  sun  ?  "  For  over  against  all  these  transcend 
ent  achievements,  what  has  the  West  African  to 
set?  What  art?  What  science?  What  religion? 
What  morality?  What  philosophy?  What  his 
tory  ?  What  even  one  single  aspect  of  civilization 
or  culture  or  higher  humanity  ?  It  would  seem 
to  be  an  insult  to  the  reader's  intelligence,  if  we 
should  prolong  the  comparison. 

Now  can  all  this  be  accidental?  Has  it  just 


IS    THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  33 

happened  that,  in  all  quarters  of  the  world  and 
under  all  climatic  and  topographic  conditions, 
East  and  West,  North  and  South,  beneath  the 
tropics  and  within  the  frozen  circles,  by  the  sea 
and  amid  the  mountains,  in  snow,  in  sand,  in 
forest  —  that  everywhere  and  everywhen  the 
Caucasian  has  manifested  the  same  all-conquer 
ing,  overmastering  qualities  --  not  always  good 
or  kind  or  just,  but  always  strong,  always  striv 
ing,  always  victorious  ?  And  that  never,  and  no 
where,  and  under  no  circumstances,  has  the  Black 
man  displayed  any  such  capacities  as  could  bring 
him  for  a  moment  into  consideration  as  the  White 
man's  equal  ?  We  answer,  there  can  be  no  possi 
bility  of  mistake.  The  achievement  of  the  race,  its 
total  history  both  in  time  and  in  space,  is  the  best 
possible  index  to  its  powers  and  potencies. 
Against  this  witness  of  history,  even  if  other 
indications  did  plead,  they  would  plead  in  vain. 
Even  were  the  brain  of  the  Negro  as  large  as  an 
elephant's,  it  would  matter  not.  Says  Hegel, 
"Nations  are  what  their  deeds  are;"  and  with 
greater  justice  we  may  affirm  that  the  race  is  what 
its  life  is  and  has  been. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  while  the  one  knight- 
errant  boldly  declares  that,  "Nature  knows  no 
forward  or  backward  races,"  the  other  more 


34  THE    COLOR    LINE 

cautiously  avoids  the  term  "backward"  and 
denies  only  inferiority  for  the  Negro.  Perhaps 
one  might  admit  that  he  is  backward  and  de 
mand  for  him  time  and  opportunity.  However, 
the  distinction  is  not  really  pertinent  to  the  issue. 
As  well  say  the  monkey  is  not  inferior,  but  only 
backward.  It  is  only  a  difference  of  degree  —  a 
very  great  difference,  to  be  sure,  but  it  is  idle 
to  say,  "Give the  Negro  time."  He  has  already 
had  time,  as  much  time  as  the  Europeans  —  thou 
sands  and  ten  thousands  of  years.  And  what 
opportunity  has  failed  him  ?  The  power  that 
uplifted  Aryan  and  Semite  did  not  come  from 
without,  but  from  within.  No  mortal  civilized 
him;  he  civilized  himself.  It  was  the  wing  of  his 
own  spirit  that  bore  him  aloft.  If  the  African  has 
equal  native  might  of  mind,  why  has  he  not 
wrought  out  his  own  civilization  and  peopled  his 
continent  with  the  monuments  of  his  genius  ? 
Or  if  the  material  was  all  there,  ready  to  be 
ignited,  needing  only  the  incensive  spark,  why 
has  it  never,  in  hundreds  of  years,  caught  fire  from 
the  blazing  torch  of  Europe  ?  Why  has  century- 
long  contact  with  other  civilizations  never  en 
kindled  the  feeblest  flame  ?  For  it  is  well  known 
that  intercourse  with  foreigners  has  in  no  degree 
elevated  or  improved  the  West  African,  but  on 


IS   THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  35 

the  contrary  has  proved  his  curse  and  his  doom. 
(See  Ratzel,  The  History  of  Mankind,  III.,  pp. 
99-100,  102-103,  120,  134.)  Moreover,  it  seems 
doubtful  whether  nearly  forty*  years  of  persistent 
and  consecrated  efforts  at  education,  with  the  ex 
penditure  of  hundreds  of  millions,  have  revealed 
yet  in  ten  millions  of  Afro-Americans  a  single  ex 
ample  of  originative  ability  of  notably  high  order. 
(Bright  Mulattoes,  like  familiar  instances,  count 
little  in  this  argument.  It  is  well  known  (Men 
del's  Law)  that  offspringf  do  not  exactly  divide 
the  qualities  of  parents,  but  often  veer  in  this  re 
spect  or  in  that  far  over  to  one  side  or  to  the  other. 
Besides,  the  abilities  of  such  men  are  apt  to  loom 
up  unduly  large  in  the  popular  imagination. 
We  all  wonder  at  a  dancing  bear,  not  because  he 
dances  well,  but  because  he  dances  at  all.) 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  unerring  indications 
of  the  native  capacities  and  tendencies  of  a  race 
is  to  be  found  in  its  ethnic  religion,  its  mythology, 

*Many  more  in  Massachusetts;  yet  hear  the  reluctant  admission  of 
the  Negro's  ardent  friend,  Dr.  Henry  M.  Field  :  "The  whole  race  (in 
Massachusetts)  has  remained  on  one  dead  level  of  mediocrity. "  ("  Sunny 
Skies  and  Dark  Shadows,"  p.  144) .  Statistics,  however,  tell  a  story  far  less 
favourable  still.  See  infra,  pp.  249f. 

fThe  following  example,  in  itself  not  uninteresting,  has  fallen  under 
our  own  observation:  At  Columbia,  Mo.,  in  a  well-known  and  highly 
reputed  family,  the  father  exemplifies  the  brunette  and  the  mother  the 
blonde  type,  each  in  its  extremes t  form;  the  son  repeats  the  father,  and  a 
daughter  the  mother,  exactly;  the  other  daughter  is  an  exquisite  chatame, 
the  mean  of  her  parents.  Compare  Mendel's  formula  for  the  transmis 
sion  of  parental  qualities,  which  DeVries  has  now  made  famous. 


36  THE    COLOR    LINE 

its  childlike,  untutored  attitude  towards  the  rid 
dles  of  the  universe.  For  there  can  be  but  little 
or  no  question  of  outside  influence  or  unequal 
opportunity.  The  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the 
firmament,  the  ocean,  the  plains,  the  mountains, 
the  forests,  the  rivers,  the  seasons,  eclipses  and 
precessions,  day  and  night,  morning  and  even 
ing,  fire  and  frost,  ice  and  vapour,  wind  and  cloud, 
thunder  and  lightning,  life  and  death,  health  and 
disease,  dreams  and  shadows  —  all  these  multi 
form  materials  of  construction  have  offered  them 
selves  in  practically  equivalent  quantity  and 
quality  to  the  phantasy  of  every  race  and  every 
age.  The  reactions  have  varied  widely,  and  have 
boldly  characterized  the  genius  of  each  people. 
Tell  me  of  their  gods,  and  I  will  tell  you  of  the 
worshippers.  Tried  by  this  standard,  the  case 
seems  decided,  even  before  it  reaches  the  thresh 
old  of  the  court.  For,  putting  aside  the  sublime 
and  awful  monotheism  of  the  Hebrew,  can  any 
one  for  an  instant  set  in  line  the  august  and  im 
posing,  if  overgrown  and  supeiiuxuriant,  myth 
ology  of  India,  the  stern  and  severe  and  tre 
mendous  religions  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates, 
the  sad  and  solemn  but  high-hearted  and  deep- 
thoughted  musings  of  Scandinavia  and  Teuton- 
land,  the  infinitely  varied  and  infinitely  beautiful 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  37 

mythopoeia  of  Hellas,  or  even  the  colorless  but 
sharp-lined  abstractions  of  Italy,  with  the  de 
graded  fetichism,  the  stock-  and  stone-service  of 
the  Niger  and  the  Congo  ? 

What  we  may  call  the  historical  argument, 
just  presented,  finds  strong  and  decisive  confir 
mation,  even  though  it  needs  none,  in  the  cra- 
niology,  the  physiognomy,  and  the  general  anat 
omy  of  the  Negro.*  Take  him  at  his  very  best  - 
does  any  one  believe  that  the  Olympian  Zeus,  an 
Apollo  Belvedere,  a  Melian  Venus,  a  Capito- 
line  Juno,  a  Hermes  of  Praxiteles,  or  a  Sistine  Ma 
donna  could  ever  by  any  possibility  have  emerged 
from  the  most  fertile  fancy  of  an  "Old  Master" 
of  the  Congo  ?  Perfect  his  type  as  you  will,  even 
as  you  perfect  the  type  of  a  flower  or  a  bird,  does 
not  the  Sudanese  remain  at  immense  remove 
from  the  European  ?  Of  course,  it  is  always  possi 
ble  to  contend  that  beauty  is  only  subjective,  any 
way,  that  the  hair  and  brow  and  nose  and  lips 
and  jaw  and  ear  of  the  West  African  would  be 
just  as  beautiful  as  those  of  the  Greek  or  Anglo- 
American,  if  we  only  thought  so.  But  being  what 
we  are,  we  cannot  think  so  now  and  still  less 
the  further  we  advance  in  organic  development. 
Moreover,  with  equal  reason  we  might  say  that 

*  For  the  details  of  this  argument,  see  infra,  pp.  46f .  el  passim. 


38  THE   COLOR    LINE 

the  tiger-lily  was  as  beautiful  as  the  rose,  the 
hippopotamus  as  pretty  as  the  squirrel;  nay  more, 
we  might  abolish  all  distinctions  of  quality,  and 
identify  each  pair  of  contradictories. 

Does  some  one  say  that  physical  beauty  is 
a  poor,  inferior  thing  at  best  —  that  beauty  of 
soul  is  alone  sufficient  and  only  desirable  ?  We 
deny  it  outright.  Beauty  of  form  and  colour  has 
its  own  high  and  inalienable  and  indefectible 
rights,  its  own  profound  significance  for  the  his 
tory  alike  of  nature  and  of  man.  Even  if  the  inter 
mingling  of  bloods  wrought  no  other  wrong  than 
the  degradation  of  bodily  beauty,  the  coarsening 
of  feature  and  blurring  of  coloration,  it  would 
still  be  an  unspeakable  outrage,  to  be  deprecated 
and  prevented  by  all  means  in  our  power.  More 
over,  we  hold  that  every  such  degeneration  of 
facial  type  will  drag  along  with  it  inevitably  a 
corresponding  declension  of  spirit.  Criminology  is 
confident  in  its  claim  of  some  deep-seated,  however 
obscure,  relation  between  aberrations  from  the 
physical  and  from  the  mental  norm.  Though  there 
may  be  many  illustrious  exceptions,  which  our 
defective  knowledge  cannot  explain,  yet  the  broad 
general  principle  may  still  be  maintained : 

For  of  the  soule  the  bodie  forme  doth  take  ; 

For  soule  is  forme,  and  doth  the  bodie  make. 


IS   THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  39 

Any  general  declination  from  type  in  the  one, 
while  it  may  not  cause,  will  yet  infallibly  argue 
a  corresponding  declination  from  type  in  the 
other. 

It  is  futile  to  reply  that  our  own  ancestors  and 
the  ancestors  of  the  Greeks  and  all  other  his 
torical  peoples  were  once  savages  —  were  once  not 
even  men,  and  hardly  manlike.  Very  true;  but 
why  stop  here?  Why  not  boldly  urge  that  Plato 
might  have  traced  back  his  lineage  to  an  amoeba, 
—yea,  to  star-dust  and  curdling  ether  ?  True,  per 
haps  ;  but  what  of  it  ?  We  may  be  cousins  to  the 
worm,  at  the  billionth  remove;  but  we  are  not 
brothers.  We  grant  the  abstract  possibility  that  the 
bee  or  the  ant  may  harbour  in  itself  higher  poten 
tialities  for  development  than  even  man  himself. 
We  even  think  it  wholesome  to  bear  this  thought 
in  mind.  Nevertheless,  such  may-be's  lie  infinitely 
beyond  the  range  of  the  practical  vision;  they 
cannot  enter  into  our  calculations  of  futurity. 
So,  too,  we  grant  that,  in  the  centuries  of  mil- 
leniums  to  come,  it  is  possible  that  the  Negro's 
nature  may  receive  some  surpassing  uplift :  he  may 
sprout  eagle  pinions,  and  far  outfly  the  wildest 
dreams  of  Caucasian  fancy.  But  such  possibilities 
are  altogether  too  remote  for  our  reckoning  now; 
they  are  decimals  in  the  hundredth  place.  We 


40  THE    COLOR    LINE 

may  and  we  must  neglect  them,  as  we  neglect  the 
likelihood  of  a  concussion  of  our  planet  with 
some  extinct  vagrant  sun.  We  must  act  in  the 
living  present,  and  at  present  there  rolls  between 
the  historical  development  of  the  black  and  the 
white  species  an  impassable  river  of  ten  thousand 
years.  Possibly  the  former  might  catch  up  in  the 
course  of  ages,  if  only  the  latter  stood  still.  But  will 
they  stand  still  ?  Can  they  afford  to  wait  ?  Is 
there  not  every  reason  to  hope  that  they  will 
forge  steadily  ahead  and  widen  still  more  and 
more  the  interval  between  ?  Is  not  such  the  ob 
vious  teaching  of  history?  Does  not  the  tree  of 
life  bud  and  bloom  and  put  forth  new  boughs 
at  the  top  ?  For  our  part,  we  believe  in  the  Over 
man,  Him  who  is  to  come  —  not,  however,  from 
the  lower,  but  from  the  higher,  humanity.  Such,  at 
least,  seems  of  necessity  our  working  hypothesis. 

It  would  be  unfair,  however,  to  close  this  part 
of  the  discussion  without  noticing  what  our 
adversaries  have  been  able  to  produce  contra. 

In  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  Prof.  W.  E.  B. 
Dubois,  of  Atlanta,  Ga.,  tells  the  tale,  and  it  could 
not  be  better  told,  of  the  contributions  made 
by  the  Negro  to  the  civilization  of  our  Union : 

"  Your  country  ?  How  came  it  yours  ?  Before 
the  Pilgrims  landed  we  were  here.  Here  we  have 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  41 

brought  our  three  gifts  and  mingled  them  with 
yours :  a  gift  of  story  and  song  —  soft,  stirring 
melody  in  an  ill-harmonized  and  unmelodious 
land;  the  gift  of  sweat  and  brawn  to  beat  back 
the  wilderness,  conquer  the  soil,  and  lay  the 
foundations  of  this  vast  economic  empire  two 
hundred  years  earlier  that  your  weak  hands 
could  have  done  it;  the  third,  a  gift  of  the 
Spirit"  (p.  262).  The  second  of  these  "gifts"  we 
dismiss  at  once;  the  Negro's  labour  was  not 
voluntary,  and  was  not  a  "gift"  in  any  sense.* 
As  well  say  the  mule  made  "gift  of  sweat  and 
brawn  to  beat  back  the  wilderness."  As  to  the 
"Spirit,"  Prof.  Dubois  means  that  the  spectacle 
of  African  slavery  aroused  the  "Spirit"  in  the 
people  of  our  land,  particularly  in  the  Abolition 
ists-  "out  of  the  nation's  heart  we  have  called 
all  that  was  best  to  throttle  and  subdue  all  that 
was  worst"  (p.  263).  Queer  "gift",  indeed!  By 
the  same  token,  the  poverty,  the  distress,  the 
injustice,  the  iniquity,  the  intemperance,  even  the 
crime  —  all  that  mar  our  civilization  have  been 
making  it  "the  gift  of  the  Spirit;"  for  have  they 
not  aroused  our  sense  of  right  and  duty  and 
devotion  to  the  good  of  others  ?  Have  they  not 

*  Even  as  a  contribution,  this  labour  was  never  necessary,  and  is  notori 
ously  becoming  more  and  more  dispensable,  even  where  it  is  not  already 
turning  into  an  impediment. 


42  THE    COLOR    LINE 

called  out  of  the  nation's  heart  all  that  was 
best  to  throttle  and  subdue  all  that  was  worst  ? 
The  gift  of  song,  of  the  plaintive  Negro  melody  - 
we  freely  allow  it.  How  much  of  the  same  is 
really  the  product  of  the  Negro  soul  seems  to  be 
a  question  by  no  means  easy  to  answer.  But 
let  us  allow  the  Negroid  the  benefit  of  the  doubt 
and  accord  him  the  fullest  credit.  We  are  not 
musician  enough  to  appraise  this  "  gift"  properly, 
nor  yet  to  reckon  its  possible  significance  for 
the  future  of  American  music.  But  at  the  very 
most,  it  seems  to  us  that  this  worth  and  this 
significance  cannot  be  very  high;  especially  since 
a  whole  generation  has  come  and  gone  without 
any  sign  of  larger  development,  but  instead,  Du- 
bois  himself  being  witness,  with  many  signs  of 
corruption  and  degradation.  Even  then,  accord 
ing  to  the  rating  of  the  chief  of  Negroids,  their 
contribution  to  our  civilization  has  been  quite 
inconsiderable. 

(N.B.— It  is  not,  however,  the  sociologist  of 
Atlanta,  but  the  seer  of  Concord,  who  has  recog 
nized  most  distinctly  and  celebrated  with  proud 
est  pomp  of  mixed  metaphor  the  clairvoyance 
and  spiritual  superiority  of  the  tropical. 

Dove  beneath  the  vulture's  beak. 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  43 

In  the  oft  quoted  "  Voluntaries  "  we  read: 

He  has  avenues  to  God 

Hid  from  men  of  Northern  brain, 

Far  beholding,  without  cloud, 

What  these  with  slowest  steps  attain. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  these  "  avenues "  of 
the  far-sighted  African  are  nothing  but  the  blind 
alleys  of  Voodooism  and  devil  worship,  it  may  be 
just  as  well  that  they  remain  "hid"  from  the 
slow-paced  European.) 

In  the  Booklovers9  Magazine  for  July,  1903,  the 
same  writer  returns  to  this  subject  in  an  article 
on  "Possibilities  of  the  Negro — The  Advance 
Guard  of  the  Race."  The  conspicuous  position 
and  the  full  illustrations  given  this  paper  show 
clearly  at  what  a  positive  advantage  the  Black 
man  stands  in  the  world  of  literature  —  simply 
because  he  is  black.  We  happen  to  know  that  the 
article  has  made  some  impression.  Ten  names 
are  presented  of  Negroids  that  have  done  re 
spectable  work  in  various  fields  of  intellectual 
labour.  If  Mr.  Washington  is  easily  the  Herakles 
in  this  latter-day  crew  of  Argo,  Dr.  Dubois,  who 
has  mustered  them,  is  himself  certainly  Jason, 
the  eleventh.  But  of  these  eleven  we  may  at  once 
dismiss  eight,  for  their  abundant  white  blood  is 


44  THE    COLOR   LINE 

apparent  in  their  pictures  and  is  not  denied. 
Only  the  other  three  are  claimed  as  "black"; 
pure  black  is  not  said,  perhaps  is  not  meant. 
These  seem  to  be  the  electrician,  the  mathema 
tician,  the  poet.  For  none  of  these  can  be  claimed 
any  very  high  order  of  merit;  the  light  by  which 
they  shine  conspicuous  among  their  fellows  would 
not  illustrate  them  very  especially  among  the 
Whites.  That  such  abilities  should  occasionally 
show  themselves,  even  in  a  quite  inferior  race, 
ought  surely  to  be  expected  and  to  arouse  the 
wonder  of  no  one.  The  really  significant  thing  is 
that  eight  out  of  eleven  of  these  champions  are 
confessedly  of  mixed  blood ;  only  27  per  cent  are 
"black."  But  these  "Blacks"  form  80  per  cent 
of  the  total  Negroid  population.  Hence,  in  pro 
portion  to  numbers,  it  appears  that  the  Mulattoes 
are  represented  nearly  eleven  times  as  often 
as  the  "Blacks."  In  the  face  of  such  a  fact,* 
it  seems  vain  to  deny  that  the  mixed  blood 
is  notably  more  intelligent  than  the  pure 
black;  the  necessary  inference  is  that  the  white 
blood  with  which  it  was  mixed  is  far  more 
intelligent  still. 

*  Established  in  the  most  conclusive  fashion  by  the  patriotic  and 
scholarly  Crogman's  "Progress  of  a  Race"  (1902).  On  glancing 
through  the  long  gallery  of  notable  Negroids  therein  assembled,  one  per 
ceives  instantly  that  the  Mulatto  is  greatly  predominant. 


IS    THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  45 

The  reader  may  naturally  ask,  Why  devote 
space  to  such  trivial  arguments  as  those  quoted, 
since  they  tell  plainly,  where  they  tell  at  all, 
against  and  not  for  the  cause  they  would  sup 
port?  We  answer,  that  our  treatment  must  be 
thorough,  if  it  be  worth  anything;  that  we  desire 
to  represent  our  opponents  at  their  very  best,  and 
as  far  as  possible  in  their  own  words;  and  that 
the  weakness  of  their  position  is  most  clearly 
seen  in  their  own  efforts  at  defence. 

The  details  of  the  anatomical  argument,  which 
Darwin  said  would  undoubtedly  lead  the  natu 
ralist  to  classify  Negro  and  European  as  distinct 
species,  are  matters  of  readily  accessible  knowl 
edge.  They  have  been  presented  frequently  and 
with  telling  force.  That  in  particular  the  cranial, 
the  facial,  and  the  appendicular  skeletons  of  the 
dolichocephalic  West  African  (the  purest,  the 
lowest,  and  the  prevalent  type  on  the  plantation) 
deviate  sensibly  from  the  highest  human  towards 
the  quadrumanal  stamp,  has  been  the  common 
observation  of  naturalists  from  Blumenbach  to 
Ratzel ;  nor  can  this  have  escaped  the  notice  of  in 
telligent  and  unbiased  laymen. 

Nevertheless,  it  may  be  well  to  record  the 
authoritative  statement  made  by  A.  H.  Keane, 
professor  of  Hindustani,  University  College,  Lon- 


46  THE   COLOR   LINE 

don,  in  the  article  "  Negro,"  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Britannica,  Vol.  XVII.* 

"But  wherever  found  in  a  comparatively  pure 
state,  as  on  the  coast  of  Guinea  (here  apparently 
is  to  be  met  the  most  pronounced  Negro  type 
proper  yet  discovered),  in  the  Gaboon,  along  the 
lower  Zambesi,  and  in  the  Benua  and  Shari 
basins,  the  African  aborigines  present  almost  a 
greater  uniformity  of  physical  and  moral  type 
than  any  of  the  other  great  divisions  of  man 
kind.  By  the  nearly  unanimous  consent  of  anthro 
pologists  this  type  occupies  at  the  same  time  the 
lowest  position  in  the  evolutionary  scale,  thus 
affording  the  best  material  for  the  comparative 
study  of  the  highest  anthropoids  and  the  human 
species.  The  chief  points  in  which  the  Negro 
either  approaches  the  Quadrumana  or  differs 
most  from  his  congeners  are: 

(1)  The   abnormal  length  of  the  arm,  which 
in  the  erect  position  sometimes  reaches  the  knee- 
pan,  and  which  on  an  average  exceeds  that  of  the 
Caucasian  by  about  2  inches. 

(2)  Prognathism,    or  projection  of  the  jaws 
(index  number  of  facial  angle  about  70,  as  com 
pared  with  the  Caucasian  82). 

(3)  Weight   of  brain,    as    indicating    cranial 

*  For  a  fuller  statement  of  some  particulars,  see  Chapter  Four. 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  47 

capacity,  35  ounces  (highest  gorilla  20,  average 
European  45). 

(4)  Full  black  eye,  with  black  iris  and  yellowish 
sclerotic  coat,  a  very  marked  feature. 

(5)  Short  flat  snub  nose,  deeply  depressed  at 
the  base  or  frontal  suture,  broad  at  extremity, 
with  dilated  nostrils  and  concave  ridge. 

(6)  Thick  protruding  lips,  plainly  showing  the 
inner  red  surface. 

(7)  Very  large  zygomatic    arches  —  high  and 
prominent  cheek  bones. 

(8)  Exceedingly  thick  cranium,   enabling  the 
Negro  to  butt  with  the  head  and  resist  blows 
which  would  inevitably  break  any  ordinary  Euro 
pean's  skull. 

(9)  Correspondingly  weak   lower   limbs,  ter 
minating  in  a  broad  flat  foot  with  low   instep, 
divergent   and    somewhat  prehensile   great  toe, 
and  heel  projecting  backwards  ("lark  heel"). 

(10)  Complexion  deep  brown  or  blackish,  and 
in  some  cases  even  distinctly  black,  due  not  to 
any  special  pigment,  as  is  often  supposed,  but 
merely  to  the  greater  abundance  of  the  coloring 
matter  in  the    Malphigian    mucous    membrane 
between  the  inner  or  true  skin  and  the  epidermis 
or  scarf  skin. 

(11)  Short,  black  hair,  eccentrically  elliptical 


48  THE    COLOR    LINE 

or  almost  flat  in  section,  and  distinctly  woolly, 
not  merely  frizzly,  as  Prichard  supposed  on  in 
sufficient  evidence. 

(12)  Thick  epidermis,  cool,  soft,  and  velvety 
to  the  touch,   mostly  hairless,   and  emitting  a 
peculiar  rancid  odor,  compared  by  Pruner  Bey 
to  that  of  the  buck  goat.* 

(13)  Frame  of  medium  height,  thrown  some 
what  out  of  the  perpendicular  by  the  shape  of 
the  pelvis,  the  spine,  the  backward  projection 
of  the  head,  and  the  whole  anatomical  structure. 

61 4)  The  cranial  sutures,  which  close  much 
earlier  in  the  Negro  than  in  the  other  races.  To 
/this  premature  ossification  of  the  skull,  prevent 
ing  all  further  development  of  the  brain,  many 
pathologists  have  attributed  the  inherent  mental 
inferiority  of  the  blacks,  an  inferiority  which  is 
even  more  marked  than  their  physical  differences. 
Nearly  all  observers  admit  that  the  Negro  child 
is  on  the  whole  quite  as  intelligent  as  those  of 
other  human  varieties,  but  that  on  arriving  at  pu 
berty  all  further  progress  seems  to  be  arrested. 
No  one  has  more  carefully  studied  this  point  than 
Filippo  Manetta,  who,  during  a  long  residence 
on  the  plantations  of  the  Southern  States  of 

*  This  misfortune  should,  of  itself,  be  sufficient  to  settle  the  question  of 
social  intercourse.  The  emanation  is  from  certain  overabundant  sudor 
ific  glands. 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  49 

America  noted  that  'the  Negro  children  were 
sharp,  intelligent,  and  full  of  vivacity,  but  on 
approaching  the  adult  period  a  gradual  change 
set  in.  The  intellect  seemed  to  become  clouded, 
animation  giving  place  to  a  sort  of  lethargy,  brisk 
ness  yielding  to  indolence.  We  necessarily  sup 
pose  that  the  development  of  the  Negro  and 
White  proceeds  on  different  lines.  While  with 
the  latter  the  volume  of  the  brain  grows  with  the 
expansion  of  the  brain-pan,  in  the  former  the 
growth  of  the  brain  is  on  the  contrary  arrested  by 
the  premature  closing  of  the  cranial  sutures  and 
lateral  pressure  of  the  frontal  bone.'  "  (La  Razza 
Negra  nel  suo  stato  selvaggio  e  nella  sua  duplice 
condizione  di  emancipata  e  di  schiava,  Torino, 
1864,  p.  20). 

This  last  point  is  one  of  such  supreme  impor 
tance  that  it  seems  well  to  strengthen  it  by  addi 
tional  testimony.  Says  the  renowned  Cesare  Lom- 
broso,  in  his  " L'Uomo  Bianco  e  L'Uomo  di 
Colore"  (1892),  p.  28:  "The  development  of 
the  African  baby  is  altogether  different  from 
ours.  In  its  first  days  it  does  not  show  the  dark 
color  of  the  adult;  the  sutures  of  the  head, 
which  with  us  close  up  only  late  in  life,  with  it 
ossify  speedily,  as  in  idiots  and  monkeys,  and 
the  anterior  sooner  than  the  posterior.  Also  its 


50  THE   COLOR   LINE 

face  becomes  projecting  and  prognathous  only 
after  the  first  dentition;  and  only  after  the  thir 
teenth  year  its  head  is  seen  to  grow  longer  and 
its  skin  to  grow  darker.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
the  mental  (morale)  development;  for  the  Negro, 
precisely  like  the  monkey,  shows  himself  very  in- 
itelligent  up  to  puberty;  but  at  that  epoch,  when 
jour  intellect  spreads  its  wings  for  more  daring 
Iflights,  he  stops  and  turns  backward.  .  .  . " 
This  profoundly  significant  arrest  of  devel 
opment  in  the  Negro  is  equally  observable  in 
school  and  out  of  it.  Among  many  witnesses,  hear 
one  of  the  most  unexceptionable,  J.  M.  McGov- 
ern,  in  a  symposium  in  the  Arena  (Vol.  21,  p.  439) : 
"  My  experience  has  shown  me  that,  while  at  the 
start  a  negro  child  often  shows  ability  quite 
equal  to  that  of  a  white  child  at  the  same  age, 
yet  if  the  two  children,  one  white  and  one  col 
oured,  each  of  average  intelligence,  are  kept  in  the 
same  class,  in  a  short  period  the  white  child  far 
outstrips  the  negro  —  at  least  in  all  those  studies 
where  diligent  application  and  depth  of  thought 
are  necessary  for  success."  This  testimony  seems 
particularly  valuable,  since  it  is  based  solely  on 
"experience"  and  is  plainly  independent  of  any 
doctrine  concerning  cranial  sutures. 

In  the  work  already  cited,  Lombroso  mentions 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  51 

several  other  minute  yet  important  particulars 
in  which  the  Negro  anatomy  diverges  from  the 
Caucasian  toward  the  simian,  but  sufficient  have 
been  adduced.  It  may  be  replied  that  each  and 
every  one  of  these  divergences  may  be  found  here 
and  there  among  Caucasians.  This  is  true,  but 
the  reply  is  no  answer.  All  sorts  of  reversions  to 
lower  type  are  to  be  met  with  in  higher  species, 
but  this  by  no  means  negatives  the  fact  that 
some  species  are  more  and  some  are  less  devel 
oped.  The  well-formed  type  still  exists  in  spite  of 
the  occasional  malformations.  Besides,  it  is  not 
the  presence  of  any  single  indication  on  which 
our  argument  is  grounded,  but  the  simultaneous 
presence  of  a  great  number  of  indications.  It 
is  these  in  their  entirety  that  distinguish  the 
Negro  so  notably,  and  remove  him  toward  the 
anthropoids;  and  over  against  this  fact  the  occa 
sional  aberrations  among  the  Whites  have  no 
argumentative  weight  whatever. 

That  the  Afro-Americans  are  by  no  means 
racially  identical,  though  racially  related,  is  a 
fact  well  known,  but  worth  recalling.  Some  are 
racially  very  distinctly  superior  to  others,  even 
as  were  their  ancestors  in  the  African  fatherland. 
On  this  point  we  submit  the  highly  intelligent 
and  unprejudiced  testimony  of  Nathaniel  South- 


52  THE    COLOR   LINE 

gate  Shaler,  the  well-known  professor  of  geology 
in  Harvard  University.  In  the  Popular  Science 
Monthly  (Vol.  57),  he  attempts  a  classification 
of  the  Southern  Blacks.  First  come  those  of  the 
"Guinea  type"  -the  purest  Negro  —  who  are 
"distinctly  of  a  low  type,"  and  who  number  one- 
half  of  all.  Those  of  the  Zulu  type  are  much 
higher,  and  number  perhaps  five  per  cent  of  all. 
The  Arab  Negro,  found  in  Virginia,  is  of  a  finer 
and  more  delicate  mould,  and  numbers  (say)  one 
per  cent.  The  Red  Negroes,  the  Bongos  and 
Mittus  mentioned  by  Schweinfurth  as  "red- 
brown,"  like  their  native  soil  (Heart  of  Africa, 
Vol.  I.,  p.  261),  are  Albinoidal,  and  number  per 
haps  one  per  cent.  The  rest  are  of  mixed  types. 
The  Guinea  "folk  are  of  essentially  limited  in 
telligence;"  the  Zulus  are  fit  for  anything  that  or 
dinary  men  of  our  own  race  can  do;  the  Arabs 
are  more  educable,  but  of  a  sombre  disposition; 
the  red  are  inferior/  The  Mulattoes  are  of  feeble 
vitality,  rarely  surviving  beyond  middle  age. , 
Professor  Shaler's  father,  an  able  physician,  had 
never  seen  a  half-breed  more  than  sixty  years 
old.  As  the  reputation  of  the  Mulatto  is  generally 
bad,  perhaps  unjustly,  "we  may  welcome  the 
fact  that  this  mixed  stock  is  likely  to  disappear" 
(pp.  33-38).  In  a  later  article  in  the  same  vol- 


IS  THE   NEGRO   INFERIOR  ?  53 

ume,  Professor  Shaler  contributes  some  valuable 
thoughts  and  estimates.  Thus:  "The  simple  yet 
valuable  lessons  of  the  soil-tiller  they  have  had. 
For  the  greater  number  of  their  race,  particu 
larly  those  of  the  Guinea  type,  this  grade  of  em 
ployment  is  as  high  as  they  may  be  expected  to 
attain"  (p.  148).  "I  feel  safe  in  saying,  from  the 
basis  of  personal  experience  with  the  negroes, 
that  somewhere  near  one -third  of  them  are  fit 
to  be  trained  for  mechanical  employment  of  a 
fairly  high  grade"  (p.  149).  We  do  not  see  how 
it  is  possible  to  call  in  question  either  the  com 
petence  or  the  fair-mindedness  of  this  distin 
guished  observer.  It  is  worthy  of  special  attention 
that  he  attests  both  the  hopeless  inferiority  of  the 
(pure  Negro)  Guinea  type  and  at  the  same  time 
its  decisive  numerical  preponderance.  The  real 
question  before  us,  then,  concerns  not  so  much 
the  Negro  in  general,  of  whom  there  are  notably 
superior  varieties,  as  the  very  lowest  Negro  that 
West  Africa  has  yet  produced. 

Here,  then,  we  let  the  anatomical  argument 
rest  for  the  present.  A  minuter  treatment  will  be 
found  in  a  more  appropriate  connection  in  a  fol 
lowing  chapter. 

It  is  a  favourite  subterfuge  of  the  champions  of 
the  Black  man  to  ascribe  his  unamiable  charac- 


54  THE    COLOR   LINE 

teristics  of  mind  and  temper,  if  not  of  body,  to  the 
centuries  of  enslavement,  debasement,  and  even 
persecution  that  he  has  passed  on  this  continent. 
Now  we  have  no  apology  whatever  to  offer  for  the 
" institution"  of  African  slavery.  We  recoiled 
from  it  instinctively  at  the  dawn  of  consciousness, 
and  we  regard  it  now  as  an  unmitigated  curse  to 
the  people  that  practise  it.  But  we  must  not  leave 
unexposed  the  gross  error  in  the  defence  just  men 
tioned.  These  centuries  have  indeed  been  centu 
ries  of  enslavement,  but  certainly  not  of  debase 
ment  nor  any  form  of  retrogression.  For  slavery  is 
and  has  been,  from  time  immemorial,  practically 
universal  in  the  fatherland  of  the  Negro  —  slav 
ery  more  cruel  and  degrading  and  inhuman  than 
is  known  elsewhere  on  the  globe.  We  enter  into 
no  details,  unwilling  to  make  our  pages  needlessly 
repulsive.  In  fact,  the  training  of  servitude  in  the 
South  has  worked  mightily  for  the  Negro's  ad 
vancement  —  not  unlike  the  domestication  of  the 
lower  animals.  Any  who  will  read  the  descrip 
tions  of  travellers,  or  the  pages  of  Lombroso  — 
L'Uomo  Bianco  e  FUomodi  Color e  —  must  admit 
that  the  humanizing  of  the  African  in  the  South 
has  proceeded  surprisingly  far.  However  ele 
mentary  and  contradictory  may  be  his  notion 
and  his  practice  of  morality  now,  on  his  native 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  55 

heath  he  has  practically  no  morality  at  all.  "It 
is  more  correct  to  say  of  the  Negro  that  he  is  non- 
moral  than  immoral.  All  the  social  institutions 
are  at  the  same  low  level,  and  throughout  the 
historic  period  seem  to  have  made  no  perceptible 
advance,  except  under  the  stimulus  of  foreign  (in 
recent  times '  notably  of  Mohammedan)  influ 
ences  .  .  .  Slavery  continues  everywhere  to 
prevail  .  .  .  cannibalism  is  practiced  .  .  . 
human  flesh  appears  to  be  sold  in  the  open  market 
place"  (Keane).  All  this  talk,  then,  of  the  Ne 
gro's  degradation,  wrought  by  his  American 
slavery,  is  the  absolute  inversion  of  the  truth. 
But  if  the  Black  man  has  advanced  so  remark 
ably  in  Southern  slavery,  may  we  not  expect  him 
to  advance  still  more  remarkably,  especially  now 
that  he  is  a  free  man  ?  At  first  blush,  this  expecta 
tion  may  seem  plausible ;  but  a  very  little  reflec 
tion  and  observation  must  show  its  vanity.  The 
first  sharp  breath  of  winter  lends  a  keen  edge  to 
the  appetite;  the  continued  cold  does  not  make  it 
keener  and  keener.  The  fagged-out  man  of  busi 
ness  or  leader  of  society  retires  to  some  cool  and 
quiet  health  resort  and  reacts  almost  instantly. 
In  a  week  he  gains  ten  pounds,  in  two  weeks  fif 
teen,  in  a  month  twenty;  but  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  this  rate  of  gain  could  be 


56  THE   COLOR   LINE 

maintained  for  any  considerable  time.  The  natu 
ral  effect  of  the  changed  and  improved  conditions 
is  soon  exhausted,  the  limits  set  in  the  constitu 
tion  of  the  subject  are  soon  reached.  So,  too,  in 
the  domestication  of  plants  and  animals.  A  mar 
vellous  superficial  alteration  may  be  speedily 
brought  about,  but  the  bound  is  close  at  hand 
and  is  approached  with  rapidly  decreasing  ve 
locity  that  soon  becomes  hardly  perceptible.  By 
no  such  means  is  any  steady  progress  possible. 

Precisely  so  in  the  domestication,  education, 
civilization  of  the  lower  races.  These  latter  do 
undoubtedly  possess  undeveloped  potentialities; 
they  are  capable  of  better  things.  The  immediate 
result  of  subjecting  them  to  new  conditions  that 
stimulate  their  powers  may  often  be  highly  grat 
ifying.  But  herein  lies  no  promise  whatever  of  any 
progressive  amelioration.  The  boundaries  are 
near  by;  nor  can  they  be  overstepped  by  any 
such  extra-organic  agencies.  Moreover,  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that,  in  perhaps  every  such  case, 
there  is  some  sacrifice  —  it  may  be  a  fatal  sacri 
fice  —  of  the  native  vigour  of  the  primitive  stock. 

This  reflection  is  completely  confirmed  by  the 
actual  example  of  the  Negro  in  a  state  of  freedom. 
Unless  all  the  statistical  indications  be  grossly 
misleading,  the  movement  of  the  Afro-American 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  57 

average  in  the  last  generation  has  been  down  and 
not  up,  backward  and  not  forward.*  Especially 
the  physical  decline  has  been  measurable  and 
ominous.  In  Haiti  the  same  experiment  has  been 
carried  much  further,  and  with  results  propor 
tionately  more  disastrous.  A  hundred  years  of 
internecine  strife  have  witnessed  nothing  but  a 
slow  reversion  to  barbarism.  The  interest  on  the 
public  debt  remains  unpaid,  agriculture  is  most 
primitive,  manufactures  languish,  the  industries 
for  which  the  island  was  once  famous  are  dead  or 
dying,  the  beautiful  French  language  is  African 
ized  into  a  structureless  patois. f 

Here,  too,  is  the  natural  place  for  one  of  the 
most  plausible  and  at  the  same  time  most  so 
phistical  arguments  yet  advanced  for  the  essential 
comparability,  if  not  the  perfect  equality,  of  the 
White  and  the  Black  —  an  argument  frequent  on 
the  lips  of  the  most  conspicuous  leader  of  his 
people,  namely:  that  the  Negro,  and  only  the 
Negro,  has  been  able  to  maintain  himself  against 
or  in  presence  of  the  aggressive  Anglo-Saxon  (we 
do  not  pretend  to  reproduce  his  words,  not  having 
them  at  hand,  but  we  do  not  misrepresent  his 
idea).  However,  the  Negro  has  not  maintained 

*  See  infra,  Chapter  Six. 

t  Thus,  the  proverb :  Un  sac  qui  est  vide  ne  peut  pas  rester  debout,  be 
comes:  Sac  qui  vide  pas  connait  ete  debout. 


58  THE    COLOR    LINE 

himself  against,  but  only  with  and  /or,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon.  A  century  long  the  Blacks  did  greatly 
flourish,  because  they  were  greatly  cherished, 
in  the  South,  despite  occasional  cruelty,  which 
rarely  or  never  hindered  development.  Fatu 
ously  enough,  the  Whites  fancied  it  to  their  own 
interest  to  warm  up  the  Blacks  into  the  most  vig 
orous  life.  The  ante-bellum  slaves  were,  perhaps, 
the  best-nurtured  labouring  population  to  be 
found  anywhere  in  the  history  of  mankind.  More 
over,  their  stock  was  actually  strengthened  by  arti 
ficial  selection.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  Black 
man  more  than  maintained  himself  under  condi 
tions  that  were  racially  so  extremely  favourable. 
Of  course,  little  credit  or  none  at  all  goes  to  the 
humanity  of  the  slaveholder.  The  best  that  could 
be  said  would  be  that  he  displayed  a  semi- 
enlightened  selfishness.  He  considered  his  slaves 

Something  better  than  his  dog,  a  little  dearer  than  his  horse. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  wide-spread  paradox  of  civiliza 
tion,  that  the  possessors  exhibit  far  deeper  wis 
dom  in  the  treatment  of  their  possessions  than 
in  the  treatment  of  themselves.  They  choose 
food  for  their  children  less  rationally  than  for 
their  cows.  A  royal  weakling  was  gazing  ad 
miringly  at  a  lordly  bull,  and  exclaimed:  "What 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  59 

a  magnificent  specimen  he  is ! "  "  Yes,"  replied  the 
bull,  "  if  your  ancestors  had  been  selected  as  care 
fully  as  mine,  you  would  be  a  magnificent  speci 
men,  too." 

There  are  yet  other  considerations,  as  the  lin 
guistic,  of  much  weight,  but  of  subtile  or  else  of 
delicate  nature,  into  which  at  present  we  forbear 
to  enter.  However,  one  further  reflection  of  a  very 
general  nature  must  not  be  omitted.  The  diver 
sities  of  type  found  even  among  Europeans,  still 
more  among  other  Caucasians,  are  remarkable 
and  universally  recognized.  Norwegian  and 
Italian,  Russian  and  Spaniard,  Cretan  and  Scot, 
can  hardly  be  confounded,  not  to  contrast  Dane 
and  Hindu,  Teuton  and  Arab,  Irishman  and  Jew. 
These  diversities  affect  not  merely  or  mainly  the 
body,  but  still  more  the  mind,  all  its  products  and 
institutions.  Moreover,  they  are  very  persistent, 
maintaining  and  asserting  themselves  in  scarcely 
diminished  force  from  generation  to  generation, 
sometimes  even  under  levelling  conditions  of 
highly  composite  intermixture.  "We  have  seen 
how  tenaciously  they  have  clung  to  the  type  of 
their  ancestors  throughout  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
ages"  (Ripley,  Pop.  Sci.  Mon.,  March,  1898, 
p.  608). 

The  thread  of  national  character,  though  inter- 


60  THE    COLOR    LINE 

laced  and  interwoven  with  bewildering  perplex 
ity,  is  found  to  stretch  itself  unbroken  through  the 
ages.  In  continuous  illustration  of  this  truth  we 
may  cite  the  great  work  of  Lapouge,  L'Aryen, 
and  the  researches  of  the  school  he  so  brilliantly 
represents.  Furthermore,  these  differences  are  not 
merely  sidewise,  right  and  left,  this  way  and  that, 
in  the  same  plane  of  quality.  They  are  at  least 
three-dimensional;  they  are  up  and  down,  higher 
and  lower.  The  one  race  is  distinctly  superior,  the 
other  inferior,  in  some  given  particular.  While  all 
branches  of  this  great  family  are  very  highly  en 
dowed,  yet  they  are  by  no  means  equally  endowed. 
Each  has  its  points  of  excellence,  but  these  points 
are  not  the  same  in  number  or  importance.  Even 
among  these  members  of  the  same  family,  there  is 
by  no  means  equality;  there  are  favourites  of  na 
ture.  Now  even  the  protagonist  of  the  Black  man 
does  not  controvert  Mr.  Darwin,  does  not  deny 
that  the  distinction  between  Negro  and  Euro 
pean  is  apparently  great  enough  to  mark  off 
two  species ;  it  merely  says  the  distinction  is  not  of 
superior  and  inferior.  But  how  can  this  be  ?  Will 
any  one  deny  that  the  Greek  was  measurably 
superior  to  the  Mede  in  a  host  of  important  par 
ticulars  ?  That  he  has  excelled  all  other  sons  of 
men  in  certain  respects?  That  he  has  fallen 


IS    THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  61 

markedly  below  the  Jew  and  the  German  in 
others  ?  If,  then,  distinctions  of  inferior  and  su 
perior  do  undoubtedly  obtain  between  stems  so 
closely  knit  physiologically  and  genetically,  with 
what  show  of  reason  can  it  be  held  that  varieties, 
like  Negro  and  European,  distinct  enough  for 
"true  and  good  species,"  are  yet  not  to  be  dis 
tinguished  as  inferior  and  superior?  In  what  re 
spect,  pray  then,  are  they  distinguishable?  Pos 
sibly  some  one  may  say  that  black,  as  a  color  for 
man,  is  neither  better  nor  worse  than  white  —  we 
doubt  it,  but  let  it  pass;  that  a  broad,  flat  nose  and 
thick,  everted  lips  are  neither  inferior  nor  supe 
rior  to  the  straight,  clean-cut  npse  and  lips  curved 
like  the  bow  of  Phcebus.  But  even  if  we  do  not 
dispute  about  such  tastes,  the  list  of  such  regards 
is  a  very  short  one,  and  when  we  come  to  the  pro- 
founder  mental,  moral,  and  social  differences,  we 
can  find  no  other  terms  than  greater  and  less  to 
describe  the  relative  endowments  of  the  widely 
sundered  races.  The  one  breed  of  dogs  does  not 
differ  from  the  other  merely  in  length  of  hair  or 
shape  of  head  and  face;  it  is  superior  or  inferior 
in  size,  strength,  courage,  agility,  endurance,  fe 
rocity,  fidelity,  docility,  intelligence.  Can  we  say 
less,  must  we  not  say  more,  of  the  varieties  of 
men  ?  We  should  really  like  to  know,  if  the  Greeks 


62  THE    COLOR   LINE 

were  neither  superior  nor  inferior  to   the  Bush 
men,  what  was  the  real  distinction  between  them  ? 

Once  again,  if  millennial  contact  and  inter 
mingling  of  such  near  affinities  as  Teuton  and 
Alpine  Kelt  have  not  availed  to  efface  their  dis 
tinguishing  features,  either  of  body  or  of  mind  - 
if  the  wonted  ancestral  fires  still  live  in  the  remote 
descendants  —  how  can  we  hope  for  aught  else 
from  the  mixture  of  European  and  African  ?  Will 
not  the  slumberous  apathy  in  which  the  Dark  Con 
tinent  broods  away  its  aeons  surely  fall  upon  the 
people  that  drink  its  blood  into  their  own  veins  ? 
Not  to  anticipate  such  a  result  is  to  scorn  analogy, 
to  despise  science,  to  defy  history. 

We  now  come  to  the  second  question :  Will  in 
termingling  with  inferiors  really  lower  the  supe 
rior  stock  ?  It  seems  very  hard  to  believe  that  any 
sober-minded  man  can  long  hesitate  to  answer, 
Yes.  Does  any  breeder  of  horses  or  cattle  or  dogs 
or  pigeons,  or  any  cultivator  of  grains  or  flowers, 
or  any  student  of  heredity  in  either  plants  or  ani 
mals,  entertain  any  doubt  whatever?  We  trow 
not.  We  need  not,  however,  appeal  to  general 
principles,  or  to  common  sense,  or  to  universal 
observation  of  the  lower  planes  of  life.  The  min 
gling  of  races  is  no  new  thing  on  our  planet;  it  has 
been  widely  diffused,  and  the  results  are  matters 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  63 

of  record.  We  shall  content  ourselves  with  citing  a 
single  authority,  than  whom  there  is  none  higher 
-  whom  not  even  the  most  suspicious  will  suspect 
of  Southern  ignorance  and  prejudice.  We  allude 
to  the  distinguished  author  of  "The  American 
Commonwealth,"  and  the  "Assimilation  of  Races 
in  the  United  States. " 

In  his  Romanes  Lecture  of  June  7,  1902,  on 
"The  Relations  of  the  Advanced  and  the  Back 
ward  Races  of  Mankind,"  Mr.  Bryce  says  (p.  24) : 
:<  Where  two  races  are  physiologically  near  to  one 
another,  the  result  of  intermixture  is  good.  Where 
they  are  remote,  it  is  less  satisfactory,  by  which  I 
mean  not  only  that  it  is  below  the  level  of  the 
higher  stock,  but  that  it  is  not  generally  and  evi 
dently  better  than  the  lower  stock  ...  But  the 
mixture  of  whites  and  negroes,  or  of  whites  and 
Hindus,  or  of  the  American  aborigines  and  ne 
groes,  seldom  shows  good  results.  The  hybrid 
stocks,  if  not  inferior  in  physical  strength  to 
either  of  those  whence  they  spring,  are  appar 
ently  less  persistent,  and  might  —  so  at  least  some 
observers  hold  —  die  out  if  they  did  not  marry 
back  into  one  or  other  of  the  parent  races.  Usu 
ally,  of  course,  they  marry  back  into  the  lower." 
(N.  B.  Mr.  Bryce,  it  appears,  is  so  "provincial, 
unintelligent  and  unchristian"  as  to  assume  that 


64  THE    COLOR    LINE 

the  Whites  are  superior  —  a  higher  stock,  and  the 
Negroes  inferior  —  a  lower  stock!)  Again,  p.  26: 
".  .  .  the  two  general  conclusions  which  the 
facts  so  far  as  known  suggest  are  these:  that 
races  of  marked  physical  dissimilarity  do  not 
tend  to  intermarry,  and  that  when  and  so  far  as 
they  do,  the  average  offspring  is  apt  to  be  physi 
cally  inferior  to  the  average  of  either  parent  stock, 
and  probably  more  beneath  the  average  mental 
level  of  the  superior  than  above  the  average  mental 
level  of  the  inferior. "  Again,  p.  35 :  "  Should  this 
view  be  correct,  it  dissuades  any  attempt  to  mix 
races  so  diverse  as  are  the  white  European  and 
the  negroes."  And  on  p.  36:  "The  matter  ought 
to  be  regarded  from  the  side  neither  of  the  white 
nor  of  the  black,  but  of  the  future  of  mankind  at 
large.  Now  for  the  future  of  mankind  nothing  is 
more  vital  than  that  some  races  should  be  main 
tained  at  the  highest  level  of  efficiency,  because 
the  work  they  can  do  for  thought  and  art  and 
letters,  for  scientific  discovery,  and  for  raising  the 
standard  of  conduct,  will  determine  the  general 
progress  of  humanity.  If  therefore  we  were  to 
suppose  the  blood  of  the  races  which  are  now 
most  advanced  to  be  diluted,  so  to  speak,  by  that 
of  the  most  backward,  not  only  would  more  be 
lost  to  the  former  than  would  be  gained  to  the 


IS    THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  (3-5 

latter,  but  there  would  be  a  loss,  possibly  an  irrep 
arable  loss,  to  the  world  at  large."  Lastly,  p.  39: 
"The  moral  to  be  drawn  from  the  case  of  the 
Southern  States  seems  to  be  that  you  must  not, 
however  excellent  your  intentions  and  however 
admirable  your  sentiments,  legislate  in  the  teeth  of 
facts  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  the  general  opinion  of 
dispassionate  men  has  come  to  deem  the  action 
taken  in  A.D.  1870  a  mistake.'' 

Now,  we  are  quite  willing  to  concede  that  pos 
sibly,  even  probably,  there  are  exceptions  to  the 
general  conclusions  of  this  eminently  fair-minded 
investigator.  We  feel  sure  there  are  many  cases  in 
which  the  Mulatto  is  raised  distinctly  above  his 
coal-black  parent:  we  believe  there  are  some 
cases,  relatively  rare,  absolutely  frequent,  in 
which  he  rises  measurably  above  the  median  line, 
towards  his  white  parent.  The  law  of  Mendel,  or 
any  other  plausible  law  of  inheritance,  would  lead 
us  to  expect  such  a  result.  And  yet,  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  organic  ascent,  whether  of  the  indi 
vidual  or  of  the  race,  as  compared  with  the  fatal 
facility  of  descent,  prepares  us  to  expect,  in  gen 
eral  terms,  precisely  what  Mr.  Bryce  affirms.  It 
is  so  easy  to  fall  ill !  It  is  so  hard  to  get  well !  In  any 
case,  that  the  average  of  cross-breeding  between 
widely  separate  races,  like  Black  and  White, 


66  THE    COLOR    LINE 

rises  above  the  mid-line  or  approaches  the  su 
perior,  is  a  proposition  that  runs  squarely  against 
all  evidence  and  all  reason,  nor  will  anything  but 
invincible  prepossession  maintain  it. 

True  it  is,  that  a  great  authority,  a  stalwart 
champion  of  the  Black  man,  whose  attention  we 
had  called  to  these  extracts,  declares  in  reply  that 
he  is  "not  at  all  affected  by  Mr.  Bryce's  state 
ments."  He  thinks  we  have  here,  in  the  United 
States,  a  much  broader  basis  of  induction  than 
the  Englishman  has  (as  if  Mr.  Bryce,  the  author 
of  "Assimilation  of  Races  in  the  United  States" 
[1892],  of  all  men,  could  neglect  or  ignore  this  im 
portant  example !) ;  he  has  in  mind  a  case  of  triple 
mixture,  reaching  back  several  generations,  yet 
the  family  are  vigorous  and  of  excellent  character ; 
and  he  refers  to  thousands  of  Mulattoes  that  are 
perfect  physically  —  all  of  which  may  be  true  and 
yet  not  enlightening.  We  sometimes  meet  with  not 
uncultured  persons  who  are  firmly  persuaded  that 
the  moon  controls  the  weather.  Tell  them  that  the 
most  minute  and  accurate  observations,  extend 
ing  through  half  a  century  and  designed  to  test  the 
matter,  have  failed  to  reveal  any  connection  be 
tween  the  weather  and  the  moon's  phases;  point 
out  to  them  the  insuperable  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  their  opinion  —  and  they  reply  that  they  are 


IS    THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  67 

"  not  at  all  affected  by  your  statements  ",  that  they 
and  their  ancestors  have  observed  for  generations 
that  changes  in  the  weather  coincide  accurately 
with  changes  in  the  moon,  that  the  broadest  in 
duction  in  their  own  neighbourhood  shows  clearly 
that  beans  will  not  flourish  if  planted  in  the  dark 
of  the  moon,  and  that  it  would  be  madness  to 
plant  potatoes  in  the  light.  If  any  other  facts  or 
observations  seem  not  to  conform  to  this  theory  — 
why,  so  much  the  worse  for  them ! 

The  general  inferiority  of  the  mixed  stock  has 
passed  into  a  proverb  even  in  Africa,  where  it  is 
said :  "  A  god  created  the  whites ;  I  know  not  who 
created  the  blacks ;  certainly  a  devil  created  the 
mongrels."  So  reports  Livingstone  (quoted  by 
Lombroso),  and  adds  that  he  had  seen  but  one 
Portuguese  Mestizo  of  robust  health.  In  Brazil 
it  is  held  that  the  mingling  of  Indian  with  Latin 
blood  has  not  produced  evil  results,*  but  every 
where  else  such  remote  crossings  have  been  more 
or  less  disastrous.  Strikingly  is  this  the  case  with 
the  Zambos  —  the  mixture  of  Indian  and  Negro ; 
they  are  mainly  degenerates  and  degraded.  Thus 
E.  G.  Squier,  writing  of  Honduras  in  the  Encyclo 
paedia  Britannica,  Vol.  XII.,  says :  "A  small  part  of 
the  coast,  above  Cape  Gracias,  is  occupied  by  the 
Sambos,  a  mixed  race  of  Indians  and  Negroes, 

*But  Lapouge  (L'Aryen):  "That  immense  realm  reverting  to  barbarism." 


68  THE    COLOR   LINE 

which,  however,  is  fast  disappearing."  In  Mexico, 
Central  and  South  America,  the  half-breeds  are 
everywhere  stationary  or  declining.  In  India  the 
Eurasians  (20,000  in  Calcutta)  "touch  a  level  of 
degradation  which  is  far  lower  than  any  reached 
by  the  pure  heathen  about  them.  They  inherit  de 
fects  more  conspicuously  than  virtues  from  both 
races  from  which  they  spring"  (Pop.  Sci.  Mon., 
Nov.,  1892).  In  Japan  the  inferior  Ainos  are  pass 
ing  away  before  the  superior  Japanese.  The  hy 
brids  are  never  healthy  or  vigorous,  and  vanish 
with  the  third  or  fourth  generation.  Here,  in  the 
United  States,  the  testimony  is  all  against  the  Mu 
latto.  In  a  report  of  the  Provost-Marshal  General, 
the  opinions  of  physicians  stand  eleven  to  one 
against  the  Mulatto  as  "scrofulous  and  consump 
tive,"  "degenerated  physically,"  and  the  one  fa 
vourable  judgement  reposes  on  only  two  instances. 
The  anthropometry  of  the  Mulatto  is  decided 
ly  against  him.  His  average  lung  capacity,  the 
most  significant  of  measurements,  was  found  by 
Gould  to  be  only  158.9  cubic  inches  against 
163.5  for  the  pure  Black,  and  184.7  for  the  White. 
His  respiration  rate  was  equally  unfavourable, 
being  19  per  minute  against  17.7  for  the  pure 
Black,  and  16.4  for  the  White.  We  refer,  also,  to 
the  testimony  of  Dr.  Shaler  (p.  52),  that  he  had 


IS   THE    NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  69 

never  known  a  Mulatto  to  pass  threescore.  The 
writer  remembers  the  first  use  he  ever  heard  of 
the  word  "cachectic;"  his  father  spoke  of  it  as 
a  term  generally  applicable  to  Mulattoes. 

From  the  convergence  of  all  such  testimony, 
which  may  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  there  seems 
no  escape  whatever.  We  must  concede,  with  Lom- 
broso :  "  It  is  impossible  to  contemplate  these  facts 
without  admitting  that  marriages  between  some 
human  races  are  much  less  fertile  and  happy  than 
between  others;"  and  especially  unfortunate  are 
those  between  such  extremes  as  Whites  and  Ne 
groes.  When  such  anthropologists  as  Waitz,  Ser- 
res,  Deschamps,  Bodichon,  anticipate  a  millen 
nium  from  universal  miscegenation,  it  is  only  sen- 
timentalism  or  else  forgetfulness  of  the  distinc 
tion  drawn  so  properly  by  Topinard  (Elements 
d'Anthropologie  generale,  1885)  between  the  in 
termingling  of  nearly  related  and  of  distantly 
related  races.  In  the  first  case  the  result  is,  in 
general,  certainly  good;  in  the  latter,  it  is  quite 
as  certainly  bad. 

But  let  us  now,  merely  for  the  moment  and  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  admit  that  both  our  pre 
mises  are  in  doubt;  that,  perhaps,  after  all  the  Ne 
gro  is  not  inferior  organically —mentally,  morally, 
or  physically  —  to  the  Caucasian,  and  that  inter- 


70  THE    COLOR    LINE 

fertility  might,  perhaps,  work  no  deterioration; 
would  the  case  be  essentially  altered  ?  Assuredly 
not.  For  even  then  the  most  extreme  negrophilist 
must  still  admit  that  there  is,  at  least,  a  reasonable 
doubt ;  even  if  the  Negro  be  not  proved  inferior,  yet 
he  is  certainly  not  proved  equal,  and  there  is  a 
large  body  of  at  least  apparent  evidence  against 
him;  even  if  it  be  not  certain  that  miscegenation 
would  work  deterioration,  it  is  at  least  very  possi 
ble  and  seemingly  probable.  Who,  then,  would 
have  the  f  oolhardihood  to  make  this  experiment  of 
race  amalgamation  —  an  experiment  which,  once 
made,  is  made  forever;  whose  consequences  could 
never  be  undone — when  there  is  at  least  and  at  the 
very  lowest  an  undeniable  possibility,  not  to  say 
certainty,  that  those  consequences  would  be 
disastrous  in  the  extreme  ?  Can  we  imagine 
a  more  wanton  folly?  Would  such  an  experi 
ment  beseem  any  other  place  so  well  as  the  mad 
house  ? 

But  some  one  will  say  that  we  are  fighting 
"bogies";  that  no  one  in  the  North,  much  less  in 
the  South,  desires  any  such  amalgamation.  Do 
not  believe  it !  The  intense,  the  supreme  yearning 
of  large  bodies  of  Negroes  is  for  social  recogni 
tion  among  the  Whites' — more  especially  for  inter 
marriage  with  their  haughty,  old-time  despisers. 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  71 

Who  does  not  know  this,  simply  does  not  under 
stand  the  dominant  facts  of  Southern  life.*  True, 
there  may  be  no  longer  anyone  in  the  North  that 
openly  advocates  miscegenation  —  no  one  that 
would  welcome  or  even  tolerate  it  in  his  family, 
though  we  remember  to  have  read  years  ago  a 
distinct  declaration,  by  no  mean  authority,  that  it 
might  be  a  positive  advantage  to  pour  the  strong, 
rich  blood  of  the  Black  man  into  the  languid 
veins  of  the  Southern  Whites !  However,  granted 
that  all  would  Nowf  disavow  such  a  sentiment  — 
and  let  us  accept  the  disavowal  unreservedly  — 
the  fact  remains  that  the  highest  authorities  in 
the  North,  the  factors  that  form  public  opinion 
and  guide  legislation,  have  never  yet  to  our  knowl- 

*  Nor  do  we  see  how  any  one  can  blame  them.  Especially  the  intelli 
gent  Mulatto  recognizes,  and  justly,  that  social  equality,  with  its  necessary 
corollary,  intermarriage,  is  the  key  of  the  whole  position.  Without  it,  he 
sees  clearly  that  his  race  is  doomed.  From  his  point  of  view,  the  denial 
of  such  equality  appears  as  a  colossal  injustice,  an  immeasurable  wrong. 
And  unless  he  be  racially  inferior,  he  is  incontrovertibly  right. 

t  We  are  not  willing  to  deface  these  pages  with  passages  quoted  in  proof 
of  the  fact  that  miscegenation  has  been  advocated  openly  and  repeatedly 
in  the  highest  quarters,  and  doubtless  in  all  good  faith  and  good  will.  But 
he  who  has  any  doubt  on  this  point  may  consult  the  Edinburgh  Review  of 
1827,  pp.  390-394;  Lyell's  "Second  Visit  to  the  United  States,"  1849,  Vol. 
II.,  p.  216 ;  The  Fourth  of  July  Speech  of  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  (1863) ;  the 
speeches  of  Mr.  Theodore  Tilton,  sometime  editor  of  The  Independent; 
but  especially  the  collection  of  pamphlets  entitled  "Miscegenation,"  by 
D.  G.  Croly  and  others  (1864),  wherein  "not  only  the  propriety,  but  the 
necessity,  of  the  marriage  of  Black  and  White"  is  argued  passionately. 
Abominable  as  such  doctrines  may  sound,  they  flow  inevitably  from  the 
principles  even  at  this  date  commonly  accepted  in  both  Englands,  and 
they  can  be  proved  wrong  only  by  proving  that  our  present  contentions  are 


72  THE   COLOR   LINE 

edge  raised  their  voices  against  miscegenation  in 
the  South.  What  means  this  expressive  silence  ? 
In  this  momentous,  all-overshadowing  contro 
versy,  there  is  no  middle  ground.  He  that  is  not 
against  amalgamation  is  for  it.  Who  so  does  not 
oppose  must  ipso  facto  favour  it.  Only  ciphers  are 
neither  plus  nor  minus. 

Moreover,  we  affirm  that  he  who  denies  our 
two  cardinal  theses,  who  denies  the  racial  inferior 
ity  of  the  Negro,  and  the  racial  deterioration  of 
the  Mulatto,  must  consistently  hold  that  mongrel- 
ization  of  the  South  is  positively  desirable;  and 
we  should  esteem  him  not  the  less,  but  the  more, 
for  boldly  defending  it.*  For  if  such  miscegena 
tion  involves  no  declination  from  the  Caucasian 
standard,  then  there  is  no  reason  whatever  against 
it.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  strong  reasons 
that  favour  it  (as  Bryce  himself  admits,  p.  27,  it 

*Mongrelization  of  the  world  has,  in  fact,  been  ably  and  honestly,  how 
ever  mistakenly,  championed  on  quasi-scientific  grounds  by  distinguished 
ethnologists  —  a  grave  error  in  science,  but  no  moral  reproach.  With  such 
must  be  ranged  the  mighty  journal  that  "  stands  alone  in  its  field,"  expon 
ent  of  the  highest  civic  life  yet  unfolded  on  this  continent.  In  the  edition 
of  Dec.  26th,  1895,  in  commenting  upon  a  conservative  letter  from 
Clinton,  Iowa,  the  Editor  remarks:  "The  laws  forbidding  honorable 
intermarriage  between  the  two  races  are  the  guarantee  of  the  perpetua 
tion  of  this  savage  atrocity  [lynching]  ;  their  abolition,  the  first  step  on 
the  part  of  the  whites  towards  its  disappearance."  Language  could  hardly 
be  more  explicit.  Of  course,  such  "  abolition "  would  be  tantamount 
to  official  invitation  to  such  "honorable  intermarriage";  otherwise  it 
would  be  nugatory:  he  who  throws  wide  open  his  gates,  thereby 
bids  come  in. 


IS   THE   NEGRO    INFERIOR  ?  73 

"has  two  great  merits");  in  particular,  it  would 
bring  about  speedily  and  permanently  a  settle 
ment  of  the  race  question,  and  a  settlement  far 
more  amicable  than  is  otherwise  possible.  There 
is  no  escape  from  this  conclusion;  and  no  dis 
claimer,  however  honest,  can  be  adequate.  The 
inference  of  approval,  from  non-hostility  to  mis 
cegenation,  is  immediate  and  unavoidable;  and 
we  may  justly  hold  our  opponents  to  the  logical 
consequence  of  their  teachings,  however  earnest 
ly  they  may  reject  it. 

Herewith,  then,  for  the  present,  we  sheathe  the 
sword  for  lack  of  argument;  for  it  seems  scarcely 
worth  while  to  point  out  that  when  we  demon 
strate  the  racial  inferiority  of  the  Negroids,  and 
insist  upon  the  necessity  of  an  impassable  social 
chasm,  we  by  no  means  excuse  or  extenuate  any 
form  of  cruelty  or  injustice  or  oppression  or  in- 
consideration,  political  or  other.  Replies  to  our 
arguments  are  not  pertinent  when  they  fail  to  note 
this  distinction,  even  though  they  may  quote  pas 
sages  from  the  "Apostle  of  Heredity,"  written 
nearly  a  generation  before  his  call  to  that  aposto- 
late.  The  humane  man  resents  the  maltreatment 
of  inferiors  no  less  quickly  because  he  recognizes 
their  inferiority ;  it  is  they  that  especially  move  his 
compassion.  The  ancient  Hindu  knew  and  felt 


74  THE   COLOR   LINE 

this  when  he  wrote :  "  He  who  needlessly  tramples 
upon  a  worm  in  his  path,  that  soul  is  darkly  alien 
ate  from  God." 

This  remark  conducts  us  very  near  to  certain 
semi-political  phases  of  the  matter;  which,  how 
ever,  we  leave  to  the  politician,  the  pulpit,  and  the 
press.  These  are  careful  and  troubled  about 
many  things ;  but  there  is  one  thing  needful  —  that 
the  rights  of  the  generations  unborn  be  guarded, 
that  the  Caucasian  race  integrity  be  preserved. 


CHAPTER  THREE 

NURTURE  ?   OR  NATURE  ? 

The  queue  still  hangs  behind  him 

CHAMISSO 

IN  the  foregoing  chapter  we  have  propounded  and 
answered  the  question  as  to  the  native  inferiority 
of  the  Black  race ;  and  now  the  query  arises,  What 
more  ?  Have  we  not  already  said  that  such  is  the 
end  of  the  matter  ?  But  the  subject  is  of  transcend 
ent  importance,  and  we  must  not  disguise  from 
the  reader  that  the  considerations  thus  far  ad 
duced  may  not  yet  be  admitted  as  perfectly  con 
clusive  by  a  certain  highly  intelligent  class  of 
thinkers.  There  is,  namely,  a  very  respectable 
school  of  anthropologists  who  will  take  nothing 
for  granted  and  are  disposed  to  call  in  question 
the  most  plausible  assumptions  and  leave  us  no 
ground  to  stand  on  but  what  has  been  won  by  the 
severest  logic.  We  can  the  less  afford  to  pass  by 
the  contentions  of  these  savants,  since  we  think 


76  THE   COLOR   LINE 

their  principles  are  in  the  main  correct,  and  we 
are  in  active  sympathy  with  their  general  meth 
ods.  In  the  present  case,  to  be  sure,  we  hold 
that  they  have  not  proved  faithful  to  the  pure 
reason,  and  that  their  skepticism  will  be  found 
destitute  of  any  sufficient  warrant. 

What,  then,  are  the  scruples  of  these  critics  ? 
What  niceties  of  demonstration,  may  they  still  in 
sist,  have  passed  unobserved  ?  We  shall  use  their 
own  words  as  nearly  as  may  be  —  the  words  of  a 
"specially  competent  anthropologist." 

(1)  It  is  denied  that  any  inference  lies,  in  any 
particular  case,  from  the  brain  to  the  mind.  "No 
principle  applicable  to  individuals  can  be  laid 
down.  Inspection  of  a  brain,  no  matter  how  min 
ute,  will  not  permit  a  legitimate  inference  as  to 
the  intellectual  status  of  the  owner."  This  must 
be  granted  without  reserve. 

(2)  Even  in  dealing  with  large  groups,  as  of  a 
thousand  men,  with  brains  averaging  fifty-three 
and  forty-six  ounces,    respectively,  with  corre 
sponding  physical  proportions,   "it  is  possible, 
but  by  no  means  certain,  that  the  average  mental 
capacity  of  the  former  would  surpass  that  of  the 
latter.  But  even  such  an  inference  would  be  based 
upon  very  scanty  evidence."  It  seems  plain  that 
the  word  "possible"  is  here  put  incautiously  for 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  77 

"probable."  Otherwise  the  sentence  is  empty  of 
meaning.  As  so  corrected,  it  must  stand.  The  only 
difference  of  opinion  that  could  arise  would  con 
cern  the  degree  of  probability.  If  we  have  read  the 
evidence  nearly  aright,  that  degree  would  be  very 
high,  but  it  could  not  rise  to  certainty.  To  this  ex 
tremely  important  matter  we  shall  return  at  the 
proper  place. 

(3)  With  respect  to  "complexity  of  structure," 
which  is  supposed  to  condition  or  to  indicate 
mental  development,  there  is  declared  to  be  a 
"lack  of  any  definite  and  certain  knowledge 
as  to  the  fundamental  facts. "  This,  also,  seems 
true. 

Quantitative  information  is  wanting,  but  quali 
tative  is  at  hand.  We  have  no  definite  and  certain 
knowledge  as  to  the  significance  of  the  gyri  and 
sulci  in  the  brain ;  but  this  does  not  invalidate  the 
general  proposition  that  relates  them  in  some  way 
with  mental  power.  The  brain  of  a  Helmholtz 
would  almost  certainly  be  deeply  carved;  the 
brain  of  an  imbecile  would  almost  certainly  be 
uncommonly  smooth.  Between  these  extremes 
there  lie  relations  infinite  in  variety  and  impossi 
ble  to  grade,  so  crossed  and  intercrossed  are  they 
with  other  elements.  Nevertheless,  the  two  oppo 
site  poles  remain  fixed,  and  the  general  indications 


78  THE    COLOR    LINE 

of  convolutions  and  of  smoothness,  other  things 
being  equal,  cannot  be  mistaken. 

(4)  As  to  skull  capacity,  there  are  many  diffi 
culties  in  the  way,  and  "the  value  of  this  evidence 
has  come  to  be  regarded  as  less  than  it  was  once 
considered  to  be,  but  still  to  a  certain  extent  sig 
nificant.  In  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  to  bear 
out  the  observations  on  the  actual  brains."  We 
do  not  see  how  it  could  well  be  expected  to  do 
much  more.  Here,  then,  are  three  indicia — weight 
of  brain,  complexity  of  its  structure,  capacity  of 
skull  -  -  each  related  directly,  though  indeter 
minately,  to  power  of  mind.  If  we  call  them  x,  y,  z, 
then  we  may  say,  with  some  approach  to  truth, 
that  mental  strength  depends  upon  their  product, 
each  taken  with  an  unknown  exponent,  thus: 
XP  y<!  zr.  This  expression,  to  be  sure,  is  not  ade 
quate;  there  are  yet  other  factors,  it  may  be 
many,  as  the  post-pubertal  extension  of  structural 
elements,  and  therewith  of  physiological  connec 
tions,  which  we  have  no  means  of  measuring  or 
observing.  But  the  real  significance  of  these  three 
is  not,  indeed  cannot  be,  doubted.  Thus,  Man- 
ouvrier  determined  the  skull  capacity  of  thirty- 
two  distinguished  men  to  average  1663cc.,  or 
103  cc.  above  the  general  mean  of  1560  cc.  —  an 
excess  of  nearly  7  per  cent.  Again,  the  mean 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  79 

weight  of  brain  of  thirty-four  such  men  reached 
1533  grammes  —  an  excess  of  163  over  the  average 
(1370),  or  almost  exactly  12  per  cent.  No  amount 
of  reasonable  allowance  can  rob  these  results  of 
their  import.  It  is  no  answer  to  say  that  the  cra 
nial  capacity  of  forty-one  murderers  averaged 
1593  cc.,  or  33  cc.  (about  two  per  cent.)  above  the 
mean.  We  see  no  reason  why  a  murderer  might 
not  have  more  than  ordinary  intelligence,  though 
many  be  degenerates ;  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
his  central  nervous  system  or  some  part  of  it 
should  be  highly  developed.  Unless  we  err  widely, 
not  a  few  of  the  greatest  characters  of  history 
have  been  great  criminals. 

(5)  What  conclusions  are  recommended  by  "all 
these  facts  and  factors"  ?  "Truly,  the  results  are 
meager.  We  are  probably  justified  in  saying  that, 
anatomically,  the  brains  of  negroid  races  are 
somewhat  less  developed  than  those  of  Euro 
peans."  But  it  is  held  that  "a  little  reflection 
shows  the  comparative  insignificance  of  the  dis 
tinction.  .  .  .  The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that 
the  European  series  will  show  more  very  large 
brains  than  the  negroid,  and  the  negroid  series 
more  very  small  brains  than  the  Europeans." 
Precisely!  And  it  is  just  this  excess  of  "very  large 
brains,"  or  at  least  of  its  general  correlate,  very 


80  THE    COLOR   LINE 

large  minds,  that  has  the  profoundest  "signifi 
cance"  for  civilization,  for  all  that  is  great  and 
glorious  in  history  and  in  humanity.  Not  only 
must  we,  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  Deviation 
from  the  Average,  interpret  this  excess  of  "very 
large  brains"  as  implying  a  higher  general  level, 
but  the  meaning  and  value  of  these  exceptions 
are  incalculable.*  Who  can  estimate  the  import 
of  the  one  brain  in  a  million,  when  it  is  the  brain 
of  Moses  or  Mohammed,  of  Aristotle  or  Archi 
medes,  of  Vergil  or  Galilei,  of  Leibnitz  or  Voltaire, 
of  Darwin  or  Washington  ?  Such  brains  are  the 
foci  of  the  orbits  of  history;  such  men  blaze  out 
the  pathways  for  the  feet  of  their  kind.  Without 
them  we  wander  round  and  round,  lost  in  the  er 
roneous  wood.  The  race  that  can  produce  such 
"very  large  brains"  is  the  race  of  advancement 
and  culture ;  they  shine  like  stars  in  the  firmament 
of  history,  and  the  multitudes  steer  their  courses 
thereby.  It  is  these  exceptions  that  mark  out  the 
line  between  progress  and  stagnation,  between 
civilization  and  barbarism ;  a  race  that  is  deficient 
in  such  exceptions  is  a  race  already  condemned. 
It  is  altogether  vain  to  interpose  that  this  ac 
knowledged  anatomical  defect  is,  after  all,  only 
slight.  The  difference  between  the  brains  of  a  fish- 

*Seew/ra,p.lOO. 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  81 

monger  and  of  a  Socrates  may  be  only  slight  —  an 
ounce  or  so  in  the  scale,  a  line  or  so  in  depth 
of  convolution ;  yet  it  corresponds  to  the  interval 
between  mediety  and  the  vertex  of  genius.  Such 
differences  are  vanishingly  small,  or  inexpressibly 
great,  according  to  the  origin  of  reckoning.  And 
herewith  we  uncover  the  fallacy  that  lies  so 
snugly  hidden  away  in  the  phrase  "comparative 
insignificance."  Undoubtedly!  If  we  reckon  from 
the  amoeba,  the  witling  seems  scarcely  distin 
guishable  from  the  wit ;  but  if  we  reckon  from  the 
average  of  humanity,  they  start  asunder  like  the 
poles.  The  summits  of  the  Himalayas  are  only 
some  four  or  five  miles  above  the  valley  of  the 
Ganges;  estimated  from  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
this  difference  is  little  more  than  one-thousandth 
of  the  whole  —  a  difference  hardly  appreciable  to 
the  eye,  even  when  armed  with  a  microscope ;  and 
yet  it  means  the  difference  between  the  impene 
trable  jungle  and  the  inaccessible  minarets  of  the 
roof  of  the  world.  The  difference  between  some 
"Rafael"  and  some  imitation  may  be  very  slight 
and  escape  the  uncritical  eye,  and  yet  make  out 
the  distinction  between  a  masterpiece  and  a  daub. 
Illustrations  abound.  It  is  a  multitude  of  trifles 
that  constitutes  perfection;  but  perfection  is 
not  a  trifle.  That  the  recognized  and  constated 


82  THE    COLOR   LINE 

superiority  of  the  European  brain  is  slight, 
by  no  means  implies  that  the  "mental  ex 
pression"  of  this  superiority  may  not  be  illimit- 
ably  grand. 

Since  the  question  of  brain-weights  is  extreme 
ly  important,  it  does  not  seem  fair  to  the  reader  to 
furnish  him  only  vague,  general  statements.  Ac 
cordingly,  we  here  submit  something  more  defi 
nite,  even  though  it  appear  like  a  long  parenthesis 
inserted  in  the  body  of  our  discourse. 

From  the  autopsies  of  405  Whites,  Blacks,  and 
intermediates,  made  by  Surgeon  Ira  Russell,  the 
following  conclusions  have  been  drawn  by  Dr. 
Sanford  B.  Hunt,  surgeon  of  United  States  Vol 
unteers  in  the  Civil  War:  "(1)  The  standard 
weight  of  the  negro  brain  is  over  five  ounces  less 
than  that  of  the  white.  (2)  Slight  intermixture  of 
white  blood  diminishes  the  negro  brain  from  its 
normal  standard,  but  when  the  infusion  of  white 
blood  amounts  to  one-half  (mulatto),  it  deter 
mines  a  positive  increase  in  the  negro  brain, 
which,  in  the  quadroon,  is  only  three  ounces  be 
low  the  white  standard.  (3)  The  percentage  of 
exceptionally  small  brains  is  largest  among  ne 
groes  having  but  a  small  proportion  of  white 
blood. "  Of  these  405,  there  were  141  Blacks,  and 
only  twenty-four  Whites;  the  others  were  mixed. 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  83 

We  may  omit  these  latter,  and  may  substitute  the 
results  of  278  other  autopsies  of  Whites,  and  form 
this  table: 

Average  Max.  Min.  60  oz.  55-60  50-55  45-50  40-45  35-40  35 

141  B.   46.96   56  35|  0  5  42  51   38  3  — 

24  W.   52.06   64  44J  1  4  11  7   —  —  — 

278  W.      49.05      65  34  7  28  99  97        39  7  1 

Here  we  observe:  Dr.  Hunt's  (1)  does  not  seem 
warranted;  the  number  (24)  of  White  brains 
weighed  seems  too  small.  But  the  weights  of  the 
278  Whites  show  that  the  smaller  weight  of  the 
Negro  brain  is  a  fact.  More  extensive  observation 
shows  that  the  Black  average  is  about  four  ounces 
below  the  White.  The  absence  of  very  large  brains 
among  the  Blacks  comes  out  most  distinctly. 
There  were  no  Black  brains  weighing  over  fifty- 
six  ounces,  only  five  weighing  so  much  as  fifty- 
five;  whereas,  eight  White  brains  weighed  over 
sixty  ounces,  and  forty  weighed  over  fifty-five. 
Likewise  of  the  twenty-four  Whites,  only  one  fell 
under  forty-five  ounces,  but  forty-one  of  the  141 
Blacks;  also,  only  forty-seven  of  the  278  Whites; 
it  is  plain,  then,  that  large  brains  predominate 
among  the  Whites  and  small  ones  among  the 
Blacks. 

This,  however,  is  not  nearly  all  the  evidence  on 
this  question.  In  the  course  of  an  elaborate  article 


84  THE    COLOR   LINE 

in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  for  1868,  pp. 
505  sqq.,Dr.  J.  Barnard  Davis  makes  this  remark : 
"As  a  general  conclusion,  without  analyzing  the 
results  of  Tiedemann's  gaugings  of  negro  skulls, 
it  may  be  unhesitatingly  asserted  that  the  brain- 
weight  of  negroes  is  positively  below  that  of 
Europeans"  (p.  522).  "The  general  mean  of  our 
African  races,  as  deduced  from  113  skulls,  53 
of  men  and  60  of  women,  a  tolerably  equal  pro 
portion,  is  43.89  ounces,  or  1244  grams.  This  is 
3.23  ounces,  or  ninety-one  grams,  less  than  our 
European  general  mean"  (p.  523).  He  also  finds 
the  mean  internal  capacity  of  393  European 
skulls  to  be  92.3  cubic  inches,  and  113  African 
skulls  to  be  86.9  cubic  inches  —  a  defect  of  nearly 
7  per  cent.  Morton  found  the  average  capacity  of 
62  native  African  skulls  to  be  83  cubic  inches,  and 
of  12  Afro- American  skulls  to  be  82  cubic  inches. 
More  recently  (1880),  Dr.  Bischoff  has  pub 
lished  at  Bonn  a  very  thorough  work  on  "Das 
Hirngewicht  des  Menschen,"  in  which  the  pres 
ent  subject  is  handled  minutely  and  very  temper 
ately.  We  translate  some  of  his  remarkably  sane 
and  judicial  conclusions:  "From  all  of  this  it  fol 
lows  that  we  are  by  no  means  justified  in  affirming 
outright  the  proposition  that  brain-weight  and 
spiritual  capacity  and  achievement  keep  equal 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  85 

pace  and  that  a  large  and  heavy  brain  of  itself  be 
tokens  a  man  highly  endowed  in  both  respects,  a 
small  and  light  brain  a  man  niggardly  equipped. 
But  just  as  little  justified  would  be  the  conclusions 
that  size  and  weight  of  brain  stand  in  no  connec 
tion  with  spiritual  gifts  and  accomplishments. 
Rather  must  we  be  convinced  that  both  factors, 
brain-weight  and  spiritual  capacity  and  achieve 
ment,  are  magnitudes  too  complex  for  their  par 
allelism  to  appear  to  be  proved  so  simply,  al 
though  the  same  (parallelism)  is  none  the  less 
present"  (p.  142). 

The  following  seems  to  have  been  written  with 
some  foreboding  of  the  more  recent  anthropology 
that  "minimizes  this  difference"  between  Eu 
ropean  and  Negroid,  and  regards  "the  mental 
.gap  as  more  apparent  than  real,  and  due  rather  to 
experience  and  training  than  to  innate  factors. " 

"The  capacity  for  spiritual  achievement  is,  I 
believe,  as  regards  both  magnitude  and  variety, 
always  innate,  a  gift  of  Nature,  and  expressed  in 
the  magnitude  and  weight  of  the  brain  and  the 
development  of  the  convolutions,  either  in  the 
whole  or  in  the  single  parts.  In  it,  aside  from  mor 
bid  alterations,  the  individual  can  bring  about  no 
change,  neither  by  addition  nor  by  subtraction. 
But  the  degree  and  the  kind  of  the  development 


86  THE   COLOR   LINE 

of  this  endowment  (Ausbildung  dieser  Anlage) 
depends  on  a  thousand  other  conditions,  partly 
quite  beyond  the  insight  and  will  of  the  individ 
ual  —  partly,  however,  subject  thereto.  All  that  we 
call  education,  culture,  social  position,  example, 
and,  on  the  part  of  the  individual,  good-will,  in 
dustry,  zeal,  etc.,  work  for  the  development  of  the 
endowment,  and  the  achievement  depends  there 
on.  Endowment,  as  already  said,  is  unalterable; 
but  the  degree  of  the  development  and  achieve 
ment  may  vary  a  thousandfold"  (p.  165). 

On  p.  169,  Bischoff  starts  the  interesting  query, 
whether  any  enhancement  of  the  endowment 
(Steigerung  der  Anlage)  in  general  or  in  particu 
lar  directions,  through  increase  of  the  brain,  in 
general  or  in  particular  parts,  be  actual  or  possi 
ble  in  the  course  of  time,  along  the  path  of  culture 
(auf  dem  Wcge  der  Zuchtung).  Broca  thought 
that  he  had  observed  a  change  in  the  skull  capac 
ity  of  Parisians,  in  the  lapse  of  centuries;  but  his 
results  (thinks  Bischoff)  are  very  far  from  being 
sure.  Thus  far  there  is  no  proof  of  any  such  pos 
sibility.  But  even  if  this  latter  were  conceded, 
Bischoff  adds,  the  actuality  of  such  a  change 
would  by  no  means  follow.  So  great  is  the  present 
endowment  that  all  progress  that  can  thus  far 
be  proved,  may  be  explained  through  the  de- 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  87 

velopment  of  this  endowment,  and  such  will, 
doubtless,  for  a  long  time  yet,  be  the  case  as  re 
gards  both  the  individual  and  the  generations  (p. 
170).  We  may  add  that  Bischoff  has  no  doubt 
whatever  either  of  the  lesser  brain-weight  or  of 
the  lower  mental  capacity  of  the  African  Negro. 

When,  now,  we  ask  what  is  the  real  significance 
of  these  weights,  we  are  fortunately  able  to  refer 
to  the  tables  of  Dr.  H.  Matiegka,  given  in  Part  I. 
of  his  researches  "  Ueber  das  Hirngewicht,  die 
Schadelkapacitdt  und  die  Kopfform,  sowie  deren 
Beziehungen  zur  psychischen  Thdtigkeit  des  Men- 
schen"  (Sitzb.  d.  kdn.  bohm.  Ges.  d.  Wiss.  1902). 
He  has  arranged  235  brain- weights  in  six  groups, 
according  to  occupation,  proceeding  from  the 
lowest  labourers  at  odd  jobs,  who  could  not 
learn  a  trade  or  find  steady  employment,  up  to 
men  of  notable  intellectual  power.  Here  is  the 
table,  showing  the  number  in  each  group  and 
the  average  weight  of  brain : 


14  Day-labourers 1410.0  grams 

34  Labourers 1433.5 

14  Porters,  watchmen,  etc 1435.7 

123  Mechanics,  workers  at  trades,  etc 1449.6 

28  Business  men,  teachers,  clerks,  professional  musi 
cians,  photographers,  etc 1468.5 

22  College-bred  scholars,  physicians,  etc 1500.0 


235  Average  of  all 1451.5  grams 

or  51.20  oz. 


88  THE   COLOR   LINE 

Here  we  observe  that  the  excess  of  this  average 
over  that  of  the  141  Blacks  is  4.24  ounces.  Also 
we  remark  that  the  average  of  the  lowest  of 
Matiegka's  groups,  the  shiftless  and  incompe 
tent,  is  nearly  48.61  ounces,  which  is  much  above 
the  average  (46.96)  yielded  by  Dr.  Russell's  141 
measurements  of  pure  Blacks.  Look  at  it  another 
way.  The  defect  of  the  day-labourer's  brain,  as 
compared  with  the  scholar's,  in  Matiegka's 
groups,  is  precisely  six  per  cent.  Even  if  the  aver 
age  white  brain  weighed  only  fifty  ounces,  a 
defect  of  six  per  cent,  would  reduce  it  only  to 
forty-seven  ounces,  which  is  still  above  the  aver 
age  of  the  Blacks.  This  latter,  then,  falls  appre 
ciably  below  the  lowest  white  standard. 

Once  more,  we  now  come  to  see  clearly  the 
immense  significance  of  the  admittedly  "some 
what  less  developed  Negroid  brain."  The  famous 
lines  of  Browning  seem  to  have  been  written 
especially  for  this  occasion: 

Oh,  the  little  more,  and  how  much  it  is  1 
And  the  little  less,  and  what  worlds  away  ! 

The  difference  between  the  averages  of  the 
highest  and  the  lowest  of  the  Matiegka  groups 
is  only  six  per  cent ;  and  yet  how  infinite  its 
moment  for  humanity  and  civilization!  The  dif- 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  89 

ference  meanwhile  between  the  general  averages 
of  the  White  and  the  Black  is  little  if  any  less 
than  eight  per  cent.  (52-48  =  4,  that  is,  1-13  or  7.7 
per  cent.).  Who,  then,  can  compute  its  import 
for  the  history  of  the  race  ? 

To  be  sure,  it  is  easy  to  pooh-pooh  the  Bohe 
mian's  measurements  and  to  scout  his  averages 
as  reckoned  from  too  scanty  material.  Nor  would 
we  attach  to  them  any  undue  importance.  We 
have  never  denied  that  there  are  many  disturb 
ing  factors.  Nevertheless,  the  general  indication 
seems  altogether  unmistakable.  Nothing  can  dis 
guise  or  deeply  obscure  the  broad  patent  fact 
that  all  the  meridians  of  evidence  converge 
towards  one  and  the  same  pole,  namely :  The  aver 
age  Negroid  brain  is  sensibly  inferior  to  the  aver 
age  Caucasian;  and  even  a  slight  defect  or  excess 
in  average  is  correlated  with  the  profoundest  mean 
ing  for  culture  and  for  civilization. 

What  must  be  said,  then,  of  such  as  proclaim : 
"This  fable  [of  Negroid  inferiority]  has  been 
repeated  and  gladly  believed.  .  .  .  But 
there  is  absolutely  no  physiological  basis  for  it 
so  far  as  the  best  studies  of  brain  structure 
go.  .  .  .  The  arrogance  of  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Caucasian  supremacy  must  find  its  justification, 
if  anywhere,  in  the  bare  will  and  brute  power  to 


90  THE    COLOR   LINE 

have  it  so,  rather  than  in  any  conclusions  of 
science"  ?  'The  Apostle  '  has  already  shaped  the 
answer:  "I  bear  them  witness  that  they  have  a 
zeal  for  man,  but  not  according  to  knowledge." 

(6)  As  "minimizing  this   difference   still  fur 
ther,"  it  is  observed  that  "the  Eskimo  even  shows 
a  brain  weight  and  development  well  above  the 
average  of  whites.  Here  again,  however,  the  ma 
terial  is  too  scanty  to  permit  of  generalization." 
Altogether  "too  scanty,"  it  would  seem.  Hardly 
half  a  dozen  such  brains  (we  speak  under  cor 
rection)   have  been  weighed  or  examined.   Be 
sides,  no  one  would  maintain  that  weight  alone 
is  sufficient.  That  large  brains  generally  go  with 
great  minds  by  no  means  implies  the  converse, 
that  great  minds  generally  go  with  large  brains. 
If  the  Eskimo  brain  be  really  heavier  than  the 
European,  which  is  by  no  means  proved,  and  yet 
the  Eskimo  mind  inferior,  the  meaning  is  that 
in  some  other  unknown  respect  of  organization 
the  Eskimo  brain  falls  so  far  behind  the  Euro 
pean  as  more  than  to  overbalance  its  excess  of 
weight.  Such  a  state  of  case  is  no  way  improbable. 

(7)  "If  we  admit  a  real  difference  between  the 
brains  of  Europeans  and  negroes,"  it  is  still  im 
possible  to  grade  the  intermediate  races  satis 
factorily.  But  this  means  nothing  more  than  that 


NURTURE  ?   OR   NATURE  ?  91 

numerous  factors,  known  and  unknown,  enter 
into  the  final  product  in  some  complex  fashion  not 
yet  understood.  It  is  very  far  from  meaning  that 
the  obvious  factors,  constated  and  admitted,  have 
not  the  general  significance  commonly  claimed. 
Such  are  the  anatomical  concessions  that  this 
school  of  anthropologists  feel  themselves  called 
upon  to  make.  The  reader  must  observe  that,  how 
ever  much  one  may  "minimize,"  it  remains  at 
the  last  impossible  to  evaporate  the  solid  central 
fact  that  the  "Negroid  brain  is  somewhat  less 
developed  than  the  European."  In  this  funda 
mental  indication  all  the  facts,  so  far  as  known, 
concur.  But  this  is  the  very  core  of  the  whole  con 
troversy.  What  more  do  we  ask  ?  What  more  do 
we  need  ?  We  have  never  been  unduly  prodigal 
of  intensive  adverbs ;  we  have  never  asserted  that 
"other  races  are  so  naturally  and  essentially  in 
ferior  in  their  brain  structure  that  they  can  never 
be  expected  to  equal  the  white  race  nor  to  be 
competent  for  self-government."  For  "who  can 
so  forecast  the  years  ?"  Not  we,  certainly,  who  are 
neither  a  prophet  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet,  nor 
a  dealer  in  any  such  indefinitely  remote  futures. 
Our  contention  was  and  is  and  will  be  that  now 
and  here,  nay  more,  that  everywhere  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  and  everywhen  within  recorded 


92  THE   COLOR    LINE 

time,  the  Negro  has  shown  himself  in  every  de 
finable  respect  incomparably  inferior  culturally 
to  the  Caucasian;  hence  it  is  concluded  prima 
facie,  since  culture  is  "mental  expression,"  that 
the  Negro  is  mentally  inferior  to  the  Caucasian, 
and  always  has  been  so  within  historic,  and  even 
far  back  prehistoric,  time.  It  is  this  historico- 
cultural  argument  that  has  been  advanced  to 
the  forefront ;  and  against  it,  where  is  there  found, 
in  the  preceding  hostile  summary  of  anatomical 
facts,  even  the  feeblest  countervail  ?  Indeed,  the 
harmony  of  history  and  anatomy  seems  perfect; 
if  neither  proves  or  necessitates  the  other,  yet 
indubitably  each  is  about  what  might  be  ex 
pected  from  the  other.  Not  one  scientific  fact  has 
ever  yet  been  adduced  to  weaken  their  mutual 
support. 

It  is  precisely  here,  however,  that  another  most 
important  phase  of  the  matter  comes  to  light. 
The  ingenious  humanitarian  fancies  that  he  can 
turn  the  edge  of  the  foregoing  arguments  com 
pletely.  It  was  Theodor  Waitz  who,  in  his  "An 
thropology"  (London,  1863),  suggested  that  the 
relation  between  human  culture  and  human 
faculty  might  be  the  inverse  of  what  was  com 
monly  conceived.  Instead  of  the  culture  resulting 
from  the  faculty,  it  might  be  the  faculty  that  re- 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  93 

suited  from  the  culture.  Accordingly,  we  should 
not  say  that  the  Greek  civilization  with  its  lan 
guage,  its  art,  its  science,  its  philosophy,  its  elo 
quence,  its  literature,  its  civil  and  military  life, 
was  the  outgrowth  of  the  Greek  genius,  the 
native  faculty  of  the  Hellenic  race,  but  rather 
that  this  genius,  this  spiritual  faculty,  this  un 
rivalled  intellectual-artistic  endowment  of  the 
Greeks,  was  the  continuous  resultant  at  each 
moment  in  the  history  of  the  race  of  the  collec 
tive  culture-experiences  through  which,  up  to 
that  moment,  it  had  passed.  We  have  tried  con 
scientiously  to  state  this  doctrine,  that  race  en 
dowment  is  the  reaction  from  race  culture-ex 
perience,  as  forcibly  and  as  plausibly  as  possible ; 
but  we  cannot  hope  to  have  redeemed  it  from 
patent  absurdity.  Surely  there  was  never  a  plainer 
case  of  the  cart  before  the  horse.  No  one  denies 
or  forgets  that  training  and  discipline  do  quicken 
and  sharpen  the  intellectual  faculties;  they  en 
able  a  man  to  make  the  most  of  himself,  to  realize 
his  possibilities,  to  develop  himself  to  the  utmost. 
The  power  to  solve  a  problem  in  algebra  or 
geometry  is  the  result,  in  part,  of  the  previous 
training  in  those  subjects.  Here  is  the  very  par 
tial  and  most  familiar  truth  that  lies  hid  away  in 
Waitz's  stupendous  error.  But  was  the  ability  to 


94  THE    COLOR   LINE 

understand  algebra  and  geometry  given  by  the 
actual  study  of  the  same,  given  step  by  step  ?  By 
no  means.  The  knowledge  necessary  to  under 
stand  the  successive  propositions  does  indeed 
grow  thus  step  by  step,  but  not  the  power.  Open 
the  book  at  the  middle;  there  you  may  find  a 
theorem  whose  proof  you  readily  understand, 
because  it  implies  very  little  previous  knowledge. 
Newton  at  first  thought  Euclid's  Elements  a 
"light  book,"  because  it  offered  him  no  diffi 
culty.  But  if  you  meet  with  some  unfamiliar 
affirmation,  then  comes  the  question,  why  ?  The 
answer  is  found  in  some  theorem  already  proved. 
Turn  back  to  it ;  perhaps  the  proof  involves  some 
still  more  fundamental  property,  and  again  you 
ask,  why  ?  Again  you  must  recur  to  some  earlier 
theorem;  and  so  on,  until  all  your  "whys"  are 
answered  with  all  possible  clearness  in  irreduci 
ble  axioms  or  postulates.  He  who  has  the  mental 
ability  will  find  this  method  of  learning  a  theorem 
entirely  practicable,  and  it  may  sometimes  be 
found  highly  instructive.  But  it  excludes  all  ques 
tion  of  gradual  growth  of  mental  power  through 
the  successive  "stages  of  culture"  itself. 

Consider,  again,  this  most  frequent  observation. 
A  boy  will  distinguish  himself  greatly  in  the 
high  school,  and  perhaps  in  the  first  half  of  his 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  95 

college  course.  He  seizes  with  avidity  upon  the 
elementary  notions  of  mathematics ,  for  instance; 
he  revels  in  problems  and  "originals."  But  on 
approaching  the  steeper  ascents,  he  finds  his  steps 
falter  and  his  senses  reel.  The  subtler  theories 
and  processes  more  and  more  elude  his  grasp ;  the 
more  highly  developed  concepts  become  more  and 
more  unmanageable.  Let  him  be  never  so  thor 
oughly  familiar  with  the  mid-regions,  the  heights 
remain  forever  inaccessible.  In  such  a  case  the 
honest  teacher  and  the  honest  student  will  both 
admit  that  further  pursuit  would  be  well-nigh 
profitless;  while  something  may  still  be  learned 
in  a  way,  yet  real  mastery  is  out  of  the  question, 
and  original  work  as  impossible  as  flight  to  the 
moon.  The  limits  of  native  power  have  been 
reached,  and  all  attempts  to  transcend  them  are 
idle. 

In  music,  in  plastic  art,  in  literature,  in  all 
higher  forms  of  mental  activity,  even  in  the  pro 
fessions  and  in  business,  the  same  state  of  case 
is  present.  The  mere  technique  may  indeed  be 
learned  step  by  step,  and  it  is  by  no  means, profit 
less  or  unimportant.  But  not  all  the  "stages  of 
culture"  conceivable  could  ever  arm  the  most 
persistent  student  with  "faculty"  to  produce  the 
Appassionata,  or  the  Last  Judgement,  or  Ham- 


96  THE    COLOR    LINE 

let,  or  even  a  Wall  Street  corner  in  stocks.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  inborn  "faculty  "  speeds  swiftly 
and  easily  through  all  such  preparatory  "stages 
of  culture,"  or  even  flanks  them  altogether, 
boldly  breaking  new  paths  through  unexplored 
regions.  Nor  needs  it  that  these  preliminaries 
should  have  been  traversed  by  the  ancestors  of 
the  richly  endowed,  who  may  have  had  no  artistic 
or  scientific  experience  whatever.  At  every  point, 
then,  this  Waitzian  notion  of  "faculty,"  as  the 
efflux  of  culture,  is  seen  to  be  an  extreme  distor 
tion  of  the  truth. 

The  later  disciples  have  slightly  modified  the 
earlier  view,  but  retain  the  essence.  Thus  it  is 
said  that  "the  mind  of  man  manifests  itself  in 
different  ways  in  different  groups.  Psychologic 
ally  and  sociologically  the  racial  problem  rests 
upon  the  explanation  of  these  differences  of  men 
tal  manifestation.  Two  lines  of  reasoning  are 
open.  The  differences  depend  either  upon  in 
herent  differences  of  mental  capacity  or  are  due 
to  influences  of  environment,  using  the  word  in 
its  broadest  sense.  Either  the  savage  represents 
a  lower  stage  of  mental  development  than  his 
civilized  relative  or  he  does  not.  The  answer  to 
the  question  presented  is  not  easy.  .  .  .  it  is  in 
teresting  to  note  that  the  trend  of  authoritative 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  97 

opinion  is  distinctly  in  the  direction  of  minimizing 
the  degree  of  difference  of  mental  capacity  be 
tween  savage  and  civilized  man  and  regarding 
the  mental  gap  as  more  apparent  than  real  and 
due  rather  to  experience  and  training  than  to 
innate  factors.  To  paraphrase  a  recent  writer,  it 
is  rather  a  question  of  mental  contents  than  of 
mental  capacities/'  Such  is  the  latest  statement 
of  this  school. 

The  most  dangerous  errors  are  those  that  con 
tain  a  certain  element  of  truth.  The  present  is  a 
case  in  point.  Let  it  be  noted,  then,  that  the  alter 
natives  mentioned  above  are  not  alternatives  at 
all;  they  are  not  mutually  exclusive,  but  quite 
consistent  and  perhaps  always  co-existent.  The 
"two  lines  of  reasoning"  do  not  intersect,  but 
are  parallel.  The  "differences  depend,"  not 
"either  .  .  .  or,"  but  both  "upon  inher 
ent  differences  of  mental  capacity"  and  "are  due 
to  influences  of  environment."  The  twain  have 
undoubtedly  acted  and  reacted  upon  each  other. 
The  divine  law,  to  him  that  hath  shall  be  given, 
from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away,  has 
found  here  the  widest  application.  The  process 
of  evolving  a  civilization  or  a  human  type  is  a 
most  complex  one,  and  we  by  no  means  exclude 
or  "minimize"  the  objective  factors  when  we 


98  THE    COLOR    LINE 

frankly  recognize  the  subjective  ones.  Here  lies 
the  primal  error  of  the  prevalent  humanitarian- 
ism.  It  perceives  that  education  is  much;  it 
rashly  concludes  that  education  is  all.  But  the 
homeliest  wisdom  knows  far  better. 

It  is  not  all  in  training  up 

A  child  against  its  will  : 

To  silver  scour  a  pewter  cup, — 

It  will  be  pewter  still. 

No,  a  thousand  times  no!  Environment  is  not 
all  nor  nearly  all — nay,  not  nearly  half.  Says  Lom- 
broso:  "The  action  of  climate  and  circumstance 
is  very  slight  by  the  side  of  heredity"  (op.  cit., 
p.  88).  Saith  Heraclitus,  "Much  learning  does 
not  teach  to  have  mind";  saith  Pindar,"  His  art 
is  true  who  by  nature  hath  knowledge,"  and  he 
scorns  the  crows  that  have  but  learned.  Let  the 
outer  impact  be  what  it  will,  it  is  the  "inherent" 
',  qualities  that  determine  the  response.  Sing  out 
the  natural  C ;  among  a  score  of  tuning-forks  only 
one  will  reply.  Nay  more;  different  constitutions 
may  make  exactly  opposite  replies:  "the  roar 
of  the  lion  scatters  the  sheep,  but  gathers  the 
jackals";  the  prayer  of  Clarence  but  hardens  the 
heart  of  the  first  murderer,  though  it  softens  the 
soul  of  the  second.  All  this,  one  would  think,  a 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  99 

child  might  understand.  Nature  blazons  it  on 
every  leaf  and  every  star,  and  proclaims  it  with 
a  million  tongues;  but  overhumane  doctrinaires 
will  neither  see  nor  hear  anything  that  impugns 
their  sacrosanct  dogma,  that  "  all  men  are  created 
equal".  "The  trend  of  authoritative  opinion" 
insists  on  "minimizing  the  degree  of  difference 
of  mental  capacity"  and  "regarding  the  mental 
gap  as  more  apparent  than  real  and  due  rather 
to  experience  and  training  than  to  innate  fac 
tors"  -whereat  the  current  philanthropy  claps 
its  hands  and  cries,  "  Eureka!  Come,  now!  Let  us 
train  and  experience  the  Negro  and  close  up  the 
mental  gap  in  a  jiffy"!  But  will  some  manu 
facturer  or  wholesale  importer  of  "authoritative 
opinions"  kindly  inform  us  what  "mental  gap" 
has  ever  been  closed  up  by  "experience  and 
training"? 

Great,  indeed,  is  the  potence  of  "environ 
ment";  greater,  by  far,  the  potence  of  heredity. 
Fortunately  we  are  not  left  quite  in  the  dark  as 
to  their  relative  importance.  In  discussing  "  race 
suicide"  an  eminent  scholar,  who  is  always  sage 
and  sagacious,  save  only  when  celeri  saucius 
Africa,  declares:  "That  those  who  are  intellect 
ually  the  best  in  each  generation  should  leave 
the  fewest  descendants  is  a  serious  thing;  for  -all 


100  THE    COLOR    LINE 

the  recent  work  in  anthropology  teaches  the  im 
portance  of  heredity,  and  tends  to  prove  Galton's 
theory  that  genius  is  inherited."  From  a  study  of 
the  one  thousand  most  eminent  men  of  history, 
but  for  whom  "the  world  would  have  made  little 
progress  in  learning,  invention  or  wealth,"  Pro 
fessor  Cattell  concludes  that  "  heredity,  including 
in  that  term  both  stability  and  variability  of  stock, 
is  more  potent  than  social  tradition  or  physical  en 
vironment."  From  a  study  of  European  royal 
genealogies,  it  is  deduced  by  Dr.  F.  A.  Woods,  of 
Harvard,  that  " heredity  has  exercised  in  mental 
life  a  factor  not  far  from  nine-tenths,  while  from 
the  moral  side  something  over  one-half." 

Without  placing  implicit  faith  in  such  numer 
ical  estimates,  and  without  pausing  to  inquire 
how  one  might  best  "exercise  a  factor",  the 
reader  will  note  the  admitted  dominance  of  hered 
ity  over  all  other  forces.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  deductions  of  Dr.  Woods  refer  to  the  "  mental 
life"  and  the  "moral  side"  in  general,  and  not 
merely  to  extraordinary  manifestations  or  "gen 
ius,"  as  in  "Galton's  theory".  Surely  there  is 
little  enough  of  the  latter  to  be  found  in  "  all  the 
royal  families  of  Europe",  and  quite  sufficient  of 
something  else.  Besides,  it  seems  clear  that  if 
genius  be  inherited,  if  marked  deviations  from 


NURTURE  ?   OR   NATURE  ?  101 

the  average  in  this  direction  or  in  that  be  trans 
mitted,  then  a  fortiori  must  also  the  general  aver 
age  character  be  itself  in  detail  determined  by 
inheritance.  For  every  example  of  "inherited 
genius"  there  lie  close  at  hand,  under  common 
and  immediate  observation,  a  thousand  exam 
ples  of  inheritance  of  qualities  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  that  fall  within  the  bounds  of  the  nor 
mal.  Such  qualities  have  beneath  them  a  far 
solider  substructure  of  age,  a  far  more  settled  and 
less  mutable  organic  habit  of  centuries,  than  do 
the  new  growths,  the  spontaneous  mutations,  that 
we  call  genius,  or  any  marked  eccentricity.  If, 
then,  the  latter  be  inherited,  far  more  so  the  for 
mer.  And  such  is  precisely  the  foundation  on 
which  the  whole  fabric  of  the  foregoing  argu 
ment  has  been  reared. 

Let  the  reader  observe  that  the  question,  the 
only  real  question,  regards  the  "mental  gap" 
between  the  Negro  and  the  Caucasian,  for  which 
we  dare  not  substitute  "between  savage  and 
civilized  man".  This  matter  is  entirely  another 
and  entirely  irrelevant.  The  "  difference  of  men 
tal  capacity"  between  the  savage  Greek  and 
the  civilized  Egyptian  was  indeed  great,  but 
was  in  favour  of  the  savage  youth  and  against 
the  civilized  ancient.  So,  too,  the  savage  Teuton 


102  THE    COLOR    LINE 

fully  equalled  or  excelled  in  mental  capacity  his 
civilized  Italian  foeman.  The  defects  of  these 
savages  were  cultural,  not  mental  proper,  and 
s  culture  was  enough  speedily  to  supply  them.  But 
where,  we  ask  again,  have  real  "mental  gaps" 
been  filled  up  by  culture?  Where  have  racial 
characteristics  been  transformed  or  abolished  ? 
Have  equal  opportunities  raised  the  150,000 
Negroes  in  Pennsylvania  to  the  white  level? 
Or  the  100,000  in  New  York  ?  Or  those  in  New 
England  ?  Or  in  Chatham,  Ontario  ?  Or  in  Paris  ? 
When  Greek  culture  led  captive  the  Roman  cap 
tor,  did  it  arm  him  with  Greek  genius  ?  Did  it 
close  up  the  "mental  gap"?  When  the  bow  of 
Hellenic  science  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Arab, 
was  he  quite  able  to  bend  it  ? 

We  recall  our  anthropologic  and  ethnologic 
disputants  to  the  ridge  of  war,  and  ask,  Do  they 
really  believe  that  the  difference  between  the 
Niger  and  the  Euphrates  was  one  of  "  experience 
and  training  "  ?  If  so,  pray  tell  us  how  many 
more  years  had  the  Sumerians  lived  seventy  cen 
turies  ago  than  the  citizens  of  Dahomey  up  to 
now  ?  Did  the  former  enjoy,  like  the  latter,  a  con 
tact  for  centuries  with  American  missionaries 
and  European  civilization  ?  And  whence  came 
the  "  experience  and  training"  of  Hammurabi  and 


NURTURE  ?   OR   NATURE  ?  103 

Sin-mubalit  and  their  ancestors  ?  Who  trained 
their  trainers ?  If  indeed  "it  is  a  question  of 
mental  contents  rather  than  of  mental  capa 
cities,"  whence,  we  insist,  came  those  "mental 
contents"  ?  Did  they  fall  out  of  the  sky  into  the 
empty  skulls  of  Nineveh?  Why,  then,  did  this 
meteoric  shower  powder  Mesopotamia  so  densely 
and  sprinkle  a  dust  so  impalpable  over  the  Su 
dan  ?  "Mental  contents  rather  than  mental  capa 
cities"  ?  True,  the  word  "capacities"  is  unluckily 
chosen;  "faculties"  would  have  been  better,  but, 
even  as  it  stands,  there  was  never  a  more  manifest 
inversion  of  the  truth.  We  have  taught  for  a 
score  of  years  and  every  year  we  see  more  clear 
ly  that  the  teacher  is  helpful  mainly  to  the  fa 
voured  few  that  do  not  need  him.  We  appeal  to 
^he  whole  tribe  of  teachers,  from  Dan  to  Beer- 
sheba  —  what  one  has  ever  supplied  "mental 
contents  "  in  the  absence  of  "  mental  capacities  "  ? 
This  is  preeminently  the  age  of  education.  Its 
agencies  are  all-embracing  and  bewildering  in 
their  complexity  and  universality.  Everything  is 
taught  and  everything  is  studied  in  the  most 
thoroughgoing  fashion,  from  the  cedar  of  Leba 
non  to  the  hyssop  on  the  wall.  If  it  be  merely 
or  mainly  a  question  of  "experience  and  train 
ing"  and  "mental  contents,"  surely  we  have  dis- 


104  THE    COLOR   LINE 

tanced  our  ancestors  immensely ;  — we  are  al 
together  "  out  of  sight  ".Genius  should  run  riot  on 
our  streets.  Homers,  Platos  and  Euclids,  Caesars, 
Shakesperes  and  Newtons,  Goethes  and  Kants, 
Pascals,  Dantes  and  Titians,  should  be  as  plenty 
as  blackberries.  And  yet  such  is  not  very  notably 
the  case.  There  is  still  some  room  at  the  top.  The 
supply  of  abilities  of  the  very  highest  order  is 
nowhere  markedly  in  excess  of  the  demand. 

Will  anyone  contend  that  "experience  and 
training"  and  subcranial  injection  of  "mental 
contents"  have  ever  been  able  to  close  up  the 
"mental  gap"  between  individuals  of  the  same 
race,  or  even  of  the  same  family  ?  Why,  then, 
imagine  that  they  may  close  up  the  far  wider  gap 
between  individuals  of  different  races  —  between 
the  races  themselves  ?  This  doctrine  of  the  all- 
sufficiency  of  "experience  and  training"  and 
"mental  contents"  assumes,  in  fact,  the  propor 
tions  of  an  overgrown  ironical  joke  and  would 
grace  the  vacuous  columns  of  Judge  far  better 
than  the  sober-minded  pages  of  Anthropology. 
As  a  child  we  have  sometimes  wondered  why 
the  eagle  should  so  far  outfly  the  turkey-gobbler; 
it  seems  the  mystery  is  now  clearly  resolved  — the 
eagle  has  doubtless  had  more  "experience  and 
training". 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  105 

We  sometimes  see  it  attempted  to  strengthen 
the  plea  for  the  essential  equality  of  the  Negro  by 
reference  to  the  Japanese,  who  are  declared  not 
inferior,  though  "they  would  have  been  called 
an  inferior,  a  hopelessly  submerged  race,  half 
a  century  ago.  But  they  have  made  a  sudden 
change.  This  has  been  no  slow  Darwinian  de 
velopment,  but  a  per  saltum  ev.olution  of  a 
new  intellectual  type  —  if  we  may  not  rather  call 
it  a  spring  blossoming  out  of  ages  of  winter. 
There  is  now  every  appearance  that  a  similar 
efflorescence  is  coming  with  the  negro  race  - 
only  they  have  begun  with  utter  ignorance  and 
slavery,  and  have  more  to  learn,  and  find  less 
encouragement".  Now,  in  this  notion  of  "efflo 
rescence  "  there  is  an  element  of  truth.  There  are 
bloom-periods  in  the  life  of  the  race,  as  of  trees 
and  of  men.  We  speak  of  the  Periclean,  the 
Augustan,  the  Elizabethan  age.  "For  greater 
dooms  do  greater  doles  obtain,"*  was  said  in  the 
ancient  mystery.  "Spirits  are  not  finely  touch'd 
but  to  fine  issues  ".  Extraordinary  junctures  and 
crises  in  the  life  of  the  individual  and  of  the  race 
may  rouse  slumbering  powers  into  vehement 
activity.  But  that  such  admitted  facts  will  bear 
the  weight  of  inference  thrown  upon  them,  we 

*  Hippolytus,  PhUosophoumena,\ .  8. 


106  THE   COLOR    LINE 

must  stoutly  deny.  The  thorn  and  the  thistle  may 
indeed  bloom  and  fructify,  but  they  will  not  bear 
grapes  or  figs.  They  will  bring  forth  fruit  after 
their  kind.  Greeks  were  Greeks  before  Marathon 
or  Salamis,  before  even  Homer  or  Agamemnon. 
Witness  the  outburst  of  Arabic  genius  after 
Mohammed!  Yet  Bagdad  and  Granada  could 
never  become  like  unto  Athens  or  Alexandria. 
But  why  multiply  illustrations  ?  Efflorescence  is 
one  thing,  transmutation  is  another.  "We  seem 
to  see  such  a  paroxysmal  impulse  now  taking 
possession  of  the  negro  race  in  this  country"! 
We  gravely  doubt  this  "sudden  start  upward"; 
we  strongly  suspect  things  are  not  what  they 
seem.  We  label  all  such  statements  "impor 
tant,  if  true  ".* 

The  illustration  from  the  Orient  will  not  serve 
its  purpose.  We  by  no  means  admit  that  Japan 
does  yet  "take  a  front  rank  among  the  strong 
and  intellectual  nations  of  the  world".  One  swal 
low  does  not  make  it  spring.  We  are  used  to 
parallels  between  Sophocles  and  Ibsen.  A  Har 
vard  junior  declared  Demosthenes  to  be  the 
Edward  Everett  of  Greece.  But  in  any  case  it  is 
not  true  that  "they  have  made  a  sudden  change  ". 

*  That  they  are  a  total  inversion  of  the  truth  is  proved  elaborately  in 
Chapter  Five. 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  107 

It  was  only  gross  ignorance  that  would  have 
called  them  "hopelessly  submerged  half  a  cen 
tury  ago".  They  were  then,  even  as  they  are  now 
and  as  they  were  hundreds  of  years  before,  an 
artistic,  ingenious,  enterprising  people,  with  a 
well-developed  culture  —  language,  literature,  re 
ligion,  social  and  civic  and  military  life.*  Con 
tact  with  Western  civilization  has  indeed  aroused 
them  and  spurred  their  ambition,  and  turned 
their  ancient  powers  into  modern  channels;  but 
we  can  by  no  means  say  it  has  really  augmented 
those  powers  or  begotten  any  new  ones.  It  is  far 
from  clear  that  this  contact  will  prove  ultimately 
beneficial.  The  Oriental  grain  is  not  improved 

*  Day  teaches  day.  Until  very  recently  our  meagre  information  touch 
ing  Japanese  brain  weight  did  not  extend  beyond  the  130  examples 
reported  by  Doenitz  (1874),  Taguchi  (1881),  Suzuki  (1892),  of  which 
the  average  was  about  1,350  grams.  Now,  however,  in  the  Medical 
Journal,  Tokio,  XXII,  Nos.  1,  2,  3,  1903,  and  in  Neurologia,  I,  No.  5, 
1903,  Prof.  K.  Taguchi  publishes  measurements  of  597  subjects;  421 
males,  176  females.  Of  these,  374  adult  males  yielded  an  average  of 
1,367  grams,  between  the  extremes  1,063  and  1,790;  150  adult  females,  an 
average  of  1,214  grams,  ranging  from  961  to  1,432.  Per  centimetre  of 
stature  the  brain  weight  of  the  Japanese  is  almost  exactly  the  same  as 
that  of  the  Germans  (  Bischoff,  Marchand),Russians(Giltschenko), Czechs 
(Matiegka) ,  of  the  same  height.  "  To  recapitulate,  the  brain  of  the  Japan 
ese  grows  more  slowly  during  infancy  and  early  youth  than  it  does  in  the 
European.  In  the  adult  the  brain- weight  compares  favorably  with  that 
of  Europeans  of  similar  stature,  and  it  may  be  shown  to  be  superior  in 
this  respect  to  other  races  of  the  same  general  stature. "  (E.  A.  Spitzka 
in  Science,  Sept.  18,  1903,  p.  371-373). 

Even  then  if  the  Japanese  should  outstrip  all  rivals,  it  would  in  no 
degree  shake  the  arguments  or  conclusions  of  this  volume,  nor  ground 
the  least  hope  for  the  African;  for  neither  historically  nor  (still  less) 
anatomically  is  there  any  parallelism  between  the  two  races. 


108  THE   COLOR   LINE 

to  every  eye  by  a  cheap  veneering  of  Occidental 
science  and  commercialism.  We  have  read  of  a 
boy  who  was  gilded  from  head  to  foot,  to  repre 
sent  an  angel  at  a  church  festival.  The  experi 
ment  was  eminently  successful:  it  turned  him 
not  only  into  an  apparent  angel,  but  also  into  a 
real  one.  A  similar  result  may  be  anticipated  as 
the  ultimate  issue  of  all  attempts,  however  well- 
meant,  to  engraft  alien  civilization  upon  the 
really  backward  races  of  mankind.  They  will 
finally  be  civilized  off  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  at 
least  from  all  regions  habitable  and  healthful 
for  the  civilizing  race. 

It  seems  to  be  of  interest,  however,  and  the 
dictate  of  fairness,  to  recall  that,  according  to  a 
very  high  and  recent,  though  perhaps  not  in 
fallible,  authority  (Professor  Ripley),  the  roots 
of  the  great  European  race-tree  are  two:*  the 

*  To  be  sure,  Prof.  Ripley  speaks  repeatedly  of  three  races  (see  Pop. 
Sc.  Mon.  LI,  p.  202):  Teutonic,  Alpine,  Mediterranean;  but  both  the 
first  and  the  last  are  long-faced  and  long-headed,  and  he  regards  the  two 
as  having  a  common  origin.!  "a  dolichocephalic  Africanoid  type  in  the 
stone  age  "  (LII,  p.  314).  "^  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  Teutonic  race 
of  northern  Europe  is  merely  a  variety  of  this  primitive,  long-headed 
type  of  the  stone  age,  both  its  distinctive  blondness  and  its  remarkable 
stature  having  been  acquired  in  the  relative  isolation  of  Scandinavia 
through  the  modifying  influences  of  environment,  and  of  natural  selec 
tion  "  (LII,  p.  312),  "The  European  races"  are  thought,  "as  intermedi 
ate  between  the  extreme  primary  types  of  the  Asiatic  and  the  negro 
races  respectively"  (LII,  p.  306).  —  But  the  Chinese  are  long-heads. — 
Sharply  opposed  to  Ripley's,  and  commanding  wider  scientific  assent,  is 
the  view  of  Lapouge,  set  forth  in  L'Aryen. 


NURTURE  ?    OR   NATURE  ?  109 

broad-headed  Kelt  from  Asia  and  the  long 
headed  Teuton  from  Africa.  If  so,  then  this  latter 
stock,  though  now  the  fairest  among  the  sons  of 
men, 

Then,  sad  relief,  from  the  bleak  shore  that  hears 
The  German  Ocean  roar,  deep  blooming,  strong, 
And  yellow-haired  the  blue-eyed  Saxon  came  — 

was  once  the  very  darkest !  What  combined  agen 
cies,  as  of  climate  and  selection,  have  wrought 
out  this  marvellous  depigmentation,  we  need  not 
here  inquire.  Suffice  it  that,  on  the  one  hand,  this 
fact,  if  it  be  a  fact,  —  non  nobis  est  componere 
tantas  lites  —  would  seem  to  ground  the  bare 
possibility  that  even  now  such  combined  agencies 
might  in  the  same  lapse  of  time  bring  about  a 
similar  transfiguration  of  the  West  African.  And 
this  we  readily  grant  --if  the  physiologic  nature 
of  the  Negro  be  as  plastic  now  as  it  was  a  hun 
dred  thousand  years  ago  —  which  we  cannot  dis 
prove,  but  which  we  have  no  right  to  assume. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  we  have  never  denied  this  or 
any  other  abstract  possibility  of  negritic  evolu 
tion.  We  merely  maintain  that  probability  is 
the  guide  of  life,  and  that  there  is  no  appreciable 
probability  of  any  such  evolution. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  bright-haired  chil- 


UNIVERSITY 


110  THE    COLOR    LINE 

dren  of  the  snow  and  foam  be  really  sprung 
from  such  sable  prognathous  ancestors,  then 
their  divergence  from  the  ancestral  type  most  cer 
tainly  began  untold  millenniums  ago,  and  the 
present  organic  departure  from  that  type  is 
measured,  as  it  were,  by  the  measureless  chasm 
of  years  that  divides  them  from  their  African 
forebears.  Now,  if  nature  and  the  tide  of  time 
have  spent  such  centuries  of  centuries  in  chisel 
ing  out  this  chasm,  how  infinitely  preposterous 
to  suppose  that  man  can  close  it  up  in  a  gener 
ation  with  the  filmy  webs  of  common  culture 
and  social  equality  and  civil  rights  and  partisan 
legislation  and  caricatured  religion  and  the  po 
litical  spoils  of  the  country  post-office !  As  well 
expect  to  rise  from  the  floor  to  the  roof  without 
ever  traversing  the  intervening  space. 


CHAPTER  FOUR 

PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA 

Who  aught  adjudges  ere  both  sides  are  heard, 
Just  though  his  judgement,  is  himself  unjust 

SENECA 

BY  far  the  ablest  plea  yet  made  for  the  "back 
ward  races"  is  to  be  found  in  the  address  of  Dr. 
Franz  Boas  on  Human  Faculty  as  Determined 
by  Race,  published  (at  least,  printed)  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science,  1894.  This  dis 
tinguished  anthropologist,  now  of  Columbia  Uni 
versity,  New  York  City,  speaks  from  the  pin 
nacles  of  science,  and  his  words  must  not  go 
unregarded.  We  shall  notice  every  salient  point 
in  his  twenty-six  pages,  and  shall  quote  him 
verbatim  as  far  as  possible.  Such  a  formal 
defence  seems  to  call  for  an  equally  formal  re 
joinder. 

He  objects  to  the  argument  from  the  superior- 


112  THE    COLOR    LINE 

ity  of  the  White  civilization  to  the  superior 
ity  of  the  White  race  as  involving  two  errors: 
(a)  "the  achievement  and  the  aptitude  for  an 
achievement  have  been  confounded",  (6)  "every 
deviation  from  the  white  type  is  considered  a 
characteristic  feature  of  a  lower  type"  (p.  302). 
It  is  declared  that  "these  two  errors  underlie  our 
judgments  of  races;"  but  why  and  whether  they 
are  really  errors,  or  in  what  measure,  here  at 
least  no  attempt  is  made  to  show.  This  will  not 
do.  Such  plausible  assumptions  are  neither  dis 
proved  nor  discredited  by  merely  labeling  them 
"errors."  However,  there  follows:  "It  might  be 
objected  that  although  achievement  is  not  neces 
sarily  a  measure  of  aptitude,  it  seems  admissible 
to  judge  the  one  by  the  other"  (pp.  302-3).  But 
why  "objected"  ?  Has  any  reason  been  opposed 
against  which  one  could  "object"?  None  what 
ever.  We  do  object  very  seriously  to  the  impli 
cation  that  already  there  has  been  advanced 
some  argument.  The  word  "objected"  should 
be  changed  to  "argued." 

Hear  now  the  answer  to  this  "  objection."  "  It 
seems  desirable  to  enter  into  these  questions 
somewhat  fully.  Let  our  mind  go  back  a  few 
thousand  years  until  it  reaches  the  time  when  the 
civilizations  of  eastern  and  of  western  Asia  were  in 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  113 

their  infancy.  As  time  passed  on,  these  civiliza 
tions  were  transferred  from  one  people  to  an 
other,  some  of  those  who  had  represented  the 
highest  type  of  culture  sinking  back  into  obscur 
ity,  while  others  took  their  places.  During  the 
dawn  of  history,  we  see  civilization  clinging  to 
certain  districts,  in  which  it  is  taken  up  now  by 
one  people,  now  by  the  other.  In  the  numerous 
conflicts  of  these  times  the  more  civilized  people 
were  often  vanquished.  The  conqueror,  how 
ever,  learned  the  arts  of  life  from  the  conquered 
and  carried  on  the  work  of  civilization.  Thus  the 
centres  of  civilization  were  shifting  to  and  fro 
over  a  limited  area  and  progress  was  slow  and 
often  interrupted.  At  the  same  period  the  ances 
tors  of  the  races,  who  are  now  among  the  most 
highly  civilized,  were  in  no  [?]  way  superior  to 
primitive  man  as  we  find  him  now  in  regions  that 
have  not  come  into  contact  with  modern  civili 
zation. 

Was  the  culture  attained  by  the  ancient  civil 
ized  people  of  such  character  as  to  allow  us  to 
claim  for  them  a  genius  superior  to  that  of  any 
other  race  ?  " 

Such  is  not  the  question;  it  is  not  about  "any 
other  race,"  but  about  the  present  backward 
races  —  African  especially  and  Australian.  It 


114  THE   COLOR   LINE 

should  have  been  said,  "Was  Greek  civilization 
such  as  to  indicate  that  the  Athenian  was  supe 
rior  to  the  Senegambian  or  the  Hottentot?" 
Will  any  one  hesitate  for  an  answer? 

"First  of  all,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  none 
of  these  civilizations  was  the  product  of  the 
genius  of  a  single  people." 

Here  the  cards  are  conveniently  shuffled  and 
the  terms  changed  from  "race"  to  "people/' 
The  question,  however,  is  not  about  "peoples' 
proper,  but  about  "races."  While  notable  differ 
ences  hold  among  "peoples"  of  the  same  "race," 
yet  the  one  race  it  is,  the  Caucasian,  that  is  held 
to  be  superior.  This  one  race  has  produced  all  the 
civilizations  in  question;  the  Mongol  comes  next, 
at  a  far  remove.  And  of  Caucasians,  the  Aryan 
shines  like  the  moon  amid  the  stars. 

"Ideas  and  inventions  were  carried  from  one 
to  the  other;  and,  although  intercommunication 
was  slow,  each  people  which  participated  in  the 
ancient  civilization  added  to  the  culture  of  the 
others.  Proofs  without  number  have  been  forth 
coming  which  show  that  ideas  have  been  dis 
seminated  as  long  as  people  have  come  into  con 
tact  with  each  other  and  that  neither  race  nor 
language  nor  distance  limits  their  diffusion.  As 
all  have  worked  together  in  the  development 


PLEA    AND    COTJNTERPLEA  115 

of  the  ancient  civilizations,  we  must  bow  to  the 
genius  of  all,  whatever  race  they  may  -represent : 
Hamitic,  Semitic,  Aryan  or  Mongol." 

But  to  all  in  equal  measure  ?  Or  to  some  in  far 
higher  measure  ?  That  is  the  question.  We  must 
not  think  of  the  Senate,  where  all  states  vote 
alike;  but  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
where  "Little  Rhody"  vanishes  by  the  side  of 
New  York  or  Texas.  Even  if  all  races  did  con 
tribute  to  the  sum  total,  which  is  far  from  true, 
there  is  an  immense  difference  between  contribu 
tions  that  may  vary  from  a  penny  to  a  pound. 
The  English  language  "bows  to  the  genius"  of 
all,  from  the  Teuton  to  the  Mongol;  but  the  for 
mer  element  is  vital,  the  latter  is  inappreciable. 

We  have  quoted  these  paragraphs  in  full  and 
for  several  reasons :  We  would  represent  our  oppo 
nent  as  correctly  as  possible ;  they  are  a  fair  sam 
ple  of  his  argumentation;  and,  especially,  as 
argument  they  are  to  us  incomprehensible  - 
hence  we  would  not  attempt  to  condense  them. 
Possibly  our  readers  may  understand  them  bet 
ter.  So  far  as  we  can  make  out,  the  savant  has 
deceived  himself  by  conjuring  with  the  words 
"  people"  and  " race."  The  question  was,  whether 
the  Caucasian,  "the  white  race,"  the  great  civ 
ilization-building  race,  in  any  or  in  all  of  its 


116  THE    COLOR    LINE 

"peoples,"  is  superior  to  the  "races"  African, 
Australian,  and  the  like,  that  have  produced  no 
civilizations?  If  not,  "why,  then,  did  the  white 
race  alone  develop  a  civilization  which  is  sweep 
ing  the  whole  world,  etc.  ?"  To  this,  his  own  ques 
tion,  these  paragraphs  contain  no  element  of 
answer,  much  less  answer  itself.  They  seem  to 
forget  all  about  "races,"  and  turn  aside  to  slight 
ly  varying  "peoples"  of  the  same  "white  race." 
They  ask  (in  effect) :  Does  the  civilization  of  the 
Greek  indicate  that  he  was  superior  to  the  West 
African  ?  And  they  reply  (in  effect)  that  the 
Hellenic  culture  was  very  composite  —  part  Doric, 
part  ^Eolic,  part  Ionian,  with  a  sprinkling  from 
the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  Surely  this  is  not 
argument;  it  is  hardly  the  simulacrum  of  argu 
ment.  Such  a  mingling  of  bloods  of  varying  vir 
tues  and  tendencies  is  now  actually  going  on  in 
our  midst;  but  they  are  all  of  the  same  "  white 
race,"  neither  physiologically  nor  psychologically 
very  far  apart;  and  such  a  mingling  may  very 
well  make  for  higher  evolution.  When  it  is 
affirmed  that  our  "ancestors"  "were  in  no  way 
superior  to  Hottentots  and  Guinea  Negroes" 
(the  long  phrase  is  a  mere  euphemism)  "at  the 
same  period,"  "during  the  dawn  of  history,"  we 
protest  earnestly.  The  affirmation  assumes  every- 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  117 

thing  in  dispute.  The  evidence  is  all  against  it. 
Their  language,  their  mythology,  the  fact  that 
they  were  of  the  White  race  which  "did  alone 
develop  a  civilization,"  the  fact  that  they  took 
fire  immediately  when  touched  by  the  torch  of 
culture,  their  bodies  and  particularly  their  skulls 
-  all  cry  aloud  against  this  complacent  assump 
tion.  More  than  a  "few  thousand  years"  ago  the 
Sumerians  had  observed  the  precession  of  the 
equinoxes;  at  "the  dawn  of  history"  in  Germany, 
Augustus  cried  vainly  to  Varus,  "  Give  me  back 
my  legions."  Arminius  in  no  way  superior  to  a 
Sudanese!  The  Babylonian  legislators  and  as 
tronomers  "in  no  way  superior"  to  the  cannibals 
of  the  Niger! 

"  Did  no  other  races  develop  a  culture  of  equal 
value?"  (p.  304).  He  shrinks  from  a  positive  yea 
or  nay,  but  holds  "  that  the  civilizations  of  ancient 
Peru  and  of  Central  America  may  well  be  com 
pared  with  the  ancient  civilization  of  the  Old 
World,"  "that  the  general  status  of  their  culture 
was  nearly  equally  high."  Herewith  this  great 
savant  seems  to  place  himself  beyond  the  pale  of 
argument.  Does  any  one  believe  that  Greek  or 
Roman  civilization  would  have  gone  down  with 
out  a  blow  at  the  mere  breath  of  Pizarro  or 
Cortes  ?  And  where  are  the  Peruvian  or  Aztec 


118  THE    COLOR   LINE 

Homer  and  Thales,  Apelles  and  Euclid,  Cicero, 
Vergil,  and  Trajan  ?  On  this  there  is  no  need  to 
dwell  longer. 

"What  then  is  the  difference  between  the  civ 
ilization  of  the  Old  World  and  that  of  the  New 
World  ?  It  is  only  a  difference  in  time.  The  one 
reached  a  certain  stage  three  thousand  or  four 
thousand  years  sooner  than  the  other"  (p.  304). 

This  is  mere  assertion.  There  is  not  the  shadow 
of  evidence  that  the  Peruvian  or  Mexican  would 
ever  have  approached  the  Greco-Roman  civil 
ization,  either  in  four  thousand  or  in  forty  thou 
sand  years.  What  has  been  done  in  the  last  four 
hundred  years,  under  the  stimulus  of  Spanish 
contact  ?  We  cannot  have  the  slightest  interest, 
logical,  sentimental,  or  other,  in  depreciating  or 
in  anywise  underrating  the  New  World  civiliza 
tions.  For  how  could  it  possibly  affect  the  question 
of  .Caucasian  and  Negro,  even  if  it  were  found 
that  the  bud  of  Cuzco  and  Anahuac  was  fairer 
than  the  flower  of  Rome  or  Athens  ?  And  why 
might  it  not  have  been  ?  We  are  very  far  from 
regarding  either  Aristides  or  Marcus  Aurelius 
as  perfect.  It  is  only  as  a  mere  matter  of  fact 
that  we  call  the  American  superiority  or  equal 
ity  so  seriously  in  question.  Admire  as  you  will, 
appraise  as  high  as  you  will,  the  art  and  the 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  119 

astronomy  of  Tezouco,  the  social  organization, 
the  agriculture,  and  the  engineering  of  the 
amautas,  it  seems  impossible  even  for  the  en 
thusiasm  of  a  Carli,  combined  with  the  race 
pride  of  an  Ixtlilxochitl  and  a  Garcilaso,  to  dis 
cover  in  the  culture  of  the  Yncas  or  of  the  Aztecs 
or  even  of  the  Toltecs  any  principle  or  augury 
of  progress.  To  us  it  is  difficult  in  the  extreme  to 
detect  any  hope  of  higher  development  where 
despotism  was  absolute,  where  free  agency  was 
outlawed,  and  where  the  object  of  war  was  to  pro 
cure  human  sacrifices.  We  hold  that  by  every 
token  these  civilizations  had  culminated,  that 
they  were  already  as  elaborated  and  petrified  as 
the  Chinese,  and  that  the  centuries  to  come 
would  have  witnessed  no  marked  advance,  but 
rather  a  retrogression.  It  should  be  added  that 
the  physical  inferiority  of  these  peoples  was  no 
table.  The  Peruvian  and  Aztec  stature  ranged 
from  five  feet  to  five  and  one-half  feet.  Now  this 
is  very  close  to  the  border  line  of  the  Dwarfs  - 
who,  according  to  Sir  William  Flower,  include 
such  races  as  do  not  exceed  five  feet  three  inches. 
The  Ynca  skull  is  better  than  others  of  South 
America,  yet  it  has  but  a  low  facial  angle. 

Dr.  Boas  thinks  four  thousand  years  but  a  trifle 
in  the  history  of  a  race  —  but  a  watch  in  the  night. 


120  THE   COLOR   LINE 

Perhaps  it  is.  He  thinks  the  mere  fact  that  a  race 
is  forty  centuries  behind  does  not  argue  that  it 
is  less  gifted.  May  be  not.  We  have  often  won 
dered  whether  the  bee  might  not  yet  overtake 
the  man.  Theoretically  all  forms  of  life  are  still  in 
the  race,  which  cannot  end  while  the  planet  is 
habitable.  Practically,  however,  four  thousand 
years  is  eternity.  A  race  that  is  more  than  a  hun 
dred  generations  behind  is  not  worth  consider 
ing.  The  reflections  in  the  paragraph  under  con 
sideration  all  strike  wide  of  the  mark. 

It  is  next  urged  (p.  304)  "that  civilization 
originated  among  few  of  its  [the  White  race's] 
members,"  and  "that  the  cognate  tribes"  might 
not  have  developed  so  swiftly  but  for  help  from 
the  others.  True,  the  Germans  (e.  g.)  profited 
greatly  from  contact  with  Greco-Romans,  but 
for  whom  they  might  now  be  savages.  But  they 
profited  because  they  were  of  the  same  stock ; 
they  were  of  nature  to  profit.  The  Greek  applied 
the  torch,  but  the  German  material  was  inflam 
mable;  else  it  would  never  have  burned.  When 
the  same  torch  has  been  applied  to  other  ma 
terials,  they  have  not  caught  fire. 

The  next  paragraph  (p.  305)  itself  raises  these 
questions:  "But  why  did  these  tribes  so  easily 
assimilate  the  culture  that  was  offered  them, 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA 

while  at  present  we  see  primitive  people  dwindle 
away  and  become  degraded  before  the  approach 
of  civilization,  instead  of  being  elevated  by  it? 
Is  not  this  a  proof  of  a  higher  organization  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Europe?"  We  have  just  rendered 
answer  simple,  natural,  satisfactory.  But  none 
such  can  be  accepted !  "I  believe  the  reasons  for 
this  fact  are  not  far  to  seek  and  do  not  necessarily 
lie  in  a  greater  ability  of  the  races  of  Europe  and 
Asia.  First  of  all,  these  people  were  alike  in 
appearance  to  civilized  man  of  their  times." 

What  perverse  ingenuity!  Likeness  in  appear 
ance  was  a  reason,  but  likeness  in  reality  —  in 
blood,  in  brain,  in  nature,  in  origin --this  was 
no  reason!  Penny  wise,  pound  foolish.  Now  the 
fact  is  that  the  likeness  in  reality  was  far  stronger 
than  in  appearance. 

"Therefore  the  fundamental  difficulty  for  the 
rise  of  primitive  people,  namely,  that  an  individ 
ual  which  has  risen  to  the  level  of  the  higher 
civilization  is  still  looked  upon  as  belonging  to 
an  inferior  race,  did  not  prevail." 

Here  again  there  is  quietly  assumed  every 
thing  in  dispute.  We  deny  outright  that  such  is 
"the  fundamental  difficulty."  In  a  measure  it 
has  no  existence  at  all,  annulled  by  the  prevalent 
doctrine  of  the  equality  of  all  men.  In  wide  circles 


THE    COLOR    LINE 

these  superior  "primitives"  (i.  e.,  Negroes)  are 
petted  and  flattered  and  extraordinarily  favoured. 
No  proof  of  the  assertion  in  question  is  so  much 
as  hinted. 

"Thus  it  was  possible  that,  in  the  colonies  of 
ancient  times,  society  could  grow  by  accretion 
from  among  the  more  primitive  people.  Further 
more,  the  devastating  influences  of  diseases  which 
nowadays  begin  to  ravage  the  inhabitants  of  terri 
tories  newly  opened  to  the  whites  were  not  so 
strong  on  account  of  the  permanent  contiguity 
of  the  people  of  the  Old  World  who  were  always 
in  contact  with  each  other  and  therefore  subject 
to  the  same  influences.  The  invasion  of  America 
and  Polynesia,  on  the  other  hand,  was  accom 
panied  by  the  introduction  of  new  diseases  among 
the  natives  of  these  countries.  The  suffering  and 
devastation  wrought  by  epidemics  which  fol 
lowed  the  discovery  are  too  well  known  to  be 
described  in  full." 

True,  but  most  inadequate;  for  why  did  not 
the  contact  with  the  new  peoples  affect  the  in 
vaders  as  well  as  the  invaded  with  new  diseases  ? 
Especially,  why  did  these  invaders  not  yield  to  the 
new  local  or  climatic  distempers  to  which  the 
invaded  had  long  since  become  measurably  im 
mune?  The  near-lying  fact  that  the  invaders 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  123 

were  stronger,  more  viable,  more  resistant  to 
disease,  in  every  way  more  vigorous  —  the  very 
fact  that  made  them  invaders  —  this  all-impor 
tant  fact  has  been  entirely  overlooked. 

"  In  addition  to  this  it  may  be  said  that  the 
contrast  between  the  culture  represented  by  the 
modern  white  and  that  of  primitive  man  is  far 
more  fundamental  than  that  between  the  ancients 
and  the  people  with  whom  they  come  in  contact. 
Particularly,  the  methods  of  manufacture  have 
developed  so  enormously  that  the  industries  of 
the  primitive  peoples  of  our  times  are  extermi 
nated  by  the  cheapness  and  large  quantity  of  the 
products  imported  by  the  white  trader;  because 
primitive  man  is  unable  to  compete  with  the 
power  of  production  of  the  machines  of  the 
whites,  while  in  olden  times  the  superior  hand 
product  rivalled  with  a  hand  product  of  a  lower 
type." 

To  what  uses  may  not  the  doctrine  of  Protec 
tion  be  turned !  For  a  generation  we  were  taught 
that  it  was  necessary  to  protect  by  a  high  tariff 
the  machine  products  of  the  United  States  against 
the  competition  of  the  hand  products  of  the  Old 
World;  now  we  are  told  that  not  only  has  the 
competition  of  the  machine  products  "exter 
minated"  the  hand  industries,  but  it  has  even 


124  THE   COLOR   LINE 

prevented  the  "primitive"  from  learning  the 
new  "methods  of  manufacture"  and  so  becom 
ing  civilized  and  saving  himself  from  extermi 
nation  !  The  reader  may  be  safely  left  to  perceive 
the  irrelevance  and  the  emptiness  of  such  "may- 
be-saids."  Let  him  further  reflect  that  the  great 
bulk  of  this  extermination,  begun  in  America 
nearly  four  hundred  years  ago,  was  accomplished 
in  three  hundred  years,  before  the  modern  era  of 
machine  products.  To  attribute  the  disappear 
ance  of  the  Indian  to  the  overthrow  of  his  indus 
tries  by  the  competition  of  cheap  calicoes  and 
wooden  nutmegs  sounds  more  like  jest  than 
earnest.  Why,  the  curiosity  of  the  "invaders" 
actually  supplied  and  still  supplies  a  new  market 
for  the  aboriginal  wares. 

The  next  remark,  "that  in  several  regions, 
particularly  in  America  and  in  parts  of  Siberia, 
the  primitive  tribes  are  swamped  by  the  numbers 
of  the  immigrating  race,"  seems  hardly  worth 
quoting  in  full.  But  from  all  of  this  it  is  concluded 
(p.  306)  "that  the  conditions  for  assimilation  in 
ancient  Europe  were  much  more  favorable" 
than  where  modern  civilization  has  overtaken 
the  "primitives,"  and  that  therefore  there  is  no 
"need  to  assume  that  the  ancient  Europeans 
were  more  gifted  than  other  races  "  that  disappear 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  125 

before  modern  civilization.  The  reader  must 
see  that,  even  if  there  were  granted  everything 
claimed  for  these  reasons,  the  question  as  to  the 
fact  of  European  superiority  would  not  be 
touched. 

For  corroboration,  appeal  is  made  (p.  306)  to 
the  Arabs  and  the  Sudanese.  In  the  second  half 
of  the  eighth  century,  the  Sudan  was  invaded 
by"Hamitic  tribes"  and  "Mohammedanism." 
"Large  empires"  came  and  went  "in  struggles 
with  neighboring  states, "  and  "  a  relatively  high 
degree  of  culture  has  been  attained. "  The  invad 
ers  intermarried  with  the  natives,  and  the  mixed 
races,  some  of  which  are  almost  purely  negro, 
have  risen  high  above  the  level  of  other  African 
negroes."  We  submit  that  such  "corroboration" 
is  little  stronger  than  weakness  itself.  "Relatively 
high  culture"  is  too  vague  a  term  to  argue  with, 
and  a  thousand  years  of  such  history  "of  north 
Africa"  is  not  worth  a  brief  generation  of  Euro 
pean  history.  If  the  infusion  of  "Hamitic"  blood 
and  civilization  has  appreciably  helped  the  Su 
danese,  we  are  not  surprised ;  but  who  will  infer 
from  that  fact  that  these  inf users  are  not  superior  ? 

"Why,  then,  have  the  Mohammedans  been 
able  to  civilize  these  tribes  and  to  raise  them  to 
nearly  the  same  standard  which  they  had  at- 


126  THE    COLOR   LINE 

tained,  while  the  whites  have  not  been  capable  of 
influencing  the  negro  in  Africa  to  any  consider 
able  extent  ?"  Mark  you,  the  word  "nearly"  -  a 
bridge  broad  enough  to  span  the  straits  of  Gib 
raltar,  the  chasm  between  Bagdad  or  Granada 
and  Dahomey,  between  Averroes  and  the  Mad 
Mullah.  Some  would,  perhaps,  hold  that  in  the 
United  States  the  Negro  has  attained  "nearly" 
to  the  Caucasian  level.  But  since  it  was  at  best 
only  "nearly"  and  not  quite,  it  follows  that  the 
mixture  of  Hamite  and  Negro  did,  after  all,  work 
a  debasement  of  the  former.  And  how  was  this 
possible,  if  the  latter  was  not  inferior  ? 

"Evidently,  on  account  of  the  different  method 
of  introduction  of  culture.  While  the  Moham 
medans  influence  the  people  in  the  same  manner 
in  which  the  ancients  civilized  the  tribes  of  Eu 
rope,  the  whites  send  only  the  products  of  their 
manufactures  and  a  few  of  their  representatives 
into  the  negro  country.  A  real  amalgamation 
between  the  higher  types  of  the  whites  and  the 
negroes  has  never  taken  place.  The  amalgama 
tion  of  the  negroes  by  the  Mohammedans  is  fa 
cilitated  particularly  by  the  institution  of  polyg 
amy,  the  conquerors  taking  native  wives  and 
raising  their  children  as  members  of  their  own 
family." 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  127 

Such  is  the  programme  for  "influencing"  the 
Negro!  Such  is  the  way  to  introduce  "culture," 
whereby,  in  a  thousand  years,  the  "mixed  race" 
may  "nearly"  attain  the  present  Caucasian  stan 
dard!  That  is,  the  only  successful  "method  of 
introduction  of  culture"  is  to  introduce  blood,  to 
introduce  a  new  stock,  a  new  germinal  principle. 
Then  comes  a  race  of  mongrels,  of  average 
mental  powers  higher  than  the  lower  breed,  with 
exceptions  little  lower  than  the  higher.  Since  the 
forms  of  civilization  are  easily  imposed  on  infe 
rior  breeds,  the  resulting  mongrels  do  what  one 
may  be  pleased  to  call  "nearly  attaining"  to  the 
standard  of  the  higher.  Bear  witness  the  West  In 
dies,  and  Mexico,  and  Central  and  South  Amer 
ica.  What  interest  has  any  one  in  contesting  such 
statements  ?  To  our  mind  they  give  away  the 
case  entirely;  out  of  their  own  mouths  such 
speakers  are  unappealably  condemned.  Bornu* 
and  Haiti  may  have  attractions  for  some ;  but  for 
us,  none  whatever. 

"When,  finally,  we  consider  the  inferior  posi 
tion  held  by  the  negro  race  of  the  United  States, 

*The  semi-civilization  of  this  "empire,"  which  never  gave  any  promise 
of  history,  culminated  centuries  ago;  in  more  recent  years  its  descent  has 
been  rapid.  Concerning  Haiti,  see  supra,  p.  57.  In  a  recent  number 
of  The  Ethical  Record,  Dr.  B.  returns  with  ardour  to  this  subject,  repeat 
ing  his  earlier  statements,  without,  however,  any  significant  additions. 


128  THE    COLOR    LINE 

who  are  in  the  closest  contact  with  modern 
civilization,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  old 
race-feeling  of  the  inferiority  of  the  colored 
race  is  as  potent  as  ever  and  is  a  formidable 
obstacle  to  its  advance  and  progress,  notwith 
standing  that  schools  and  universities  are  open 
to  them.  We  might  rather  wonder  how  much 
has  been  accomplished  in  a  short  period 
against  heavy  odds.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  say 
what  would  become  of  the  negro  if  he  were 
able  to  live  with  the  whites  on  absolutely  equal 
terms"  (p.  307). 

Such  is  the  pathetic  plea  for  the  ABSOLUTE 
EQUALITY  in  our  American  life  of  Black  and 
White.  We  do  not  deny  that  there  is  a  certain 
force  in  such  words.  To  us  the  Negro  seems  han 
dicapped  with  an  undeniable  inferiority,  which, 
particularly  in  the  commercial  world,  accumu 
lates  rapidly  against  him,  as  it  were,  at  compound 
interest.  And  this  is  the  seventh  seal  of  his  doom. 
But  in  science,  in  literature,  in  art,  he  receives  all 
encouragement;  his  work  is  at  an  absurd  pre 
mium.  Take  one  illustration,  instar  omnium.  In 
the  advertisement  of  "Volumes  by  Paul  Law 
rence  Dunbar,"  in  "The  Uncalled,"  his  own 
publishers  speak  thus:  "A  poet  who  starts  out  by 
being  handicapped  by  excessive  praise  suffers 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  129 

from  it  for  a  long  time.  .  .  .  Just  because 
he  [Dunbar]  happened  to  be  a  Negro,  a  vast 
amount  of  adulation  was  heaped  upon  him. "  Pre 
cisely  the  opposite  of  the  picture  drawn  above! 
Compare,  also,  the  history  of  the  Negroes  of 
Chatham,  Ontario,  and  of  other  such  early  colo 
nies.  That  they  no  longer  meet  with  such  extra 
ordinary  favour  in  the  North  is  largely  due  to  the 
fact  that  they  have  uniformly,  when  in  numbers, 
sadly  disappointed  the  hopes  of  their  benefac 
tors  and  well-wishers.  It  seems  plain,  moreover, 
that  a  really  strong  and  highly  endowed  blood 
would  triumph  with  equal  ease  over  excessive 
favour  and  over  unjust  disfavour.  Would  any 
such  discrimination  keep  down  the  Anglo-Saxon  ? 
Would  he  not ' '  make  by  force  his  merit  known  "  ? 
And  have  twenty  centuries  of  race  prejudice  and 
outrageous  persecution  availed  to  repress  or  de 
press  the  all-victorious  sons  of  Israel  ?  The  gen 
erous  explanation  just  offered  must  be  rejected 
as  utterly  inadequate. 

Hence  it  is  concluded  (p.  307)  that  "no  great 
weight  can  be  attributed  to  the  earlier  rise  of  civ 
ilization  in  the  Old  World  which  is  satisfactorily 
explained  as  a  chance.  In  short,  historical  events 
appear  to  have  been  much  more  potent  in  leading 
races  to  civilization  than  their  faculty,  and  it  fol- 


130  THE    COLOR   LINE 

lows  that  achievements  of  races  do  not  warrant 
us  to  assume  that  one  race  is  more  highly  gifted 
than  the  other." 

We  submit  that  there  has  not  been  offered,  for 
these  conclusions,  any  semblance  of  proof  what 
ever.  Let  our  readers  judge;  —  we  have  quoted 
very  fully.  Notice,  moreover,  the  phrase  "  earlier 
rise  of  civilization  in  the  Old  World."  But  who 
knows  that  it  rose  earlier  in  the  Old  World  ?  Or 
who  cares  ?  Who  argues  therefrom  ?  The  point  is, 
that  it  rose  higher,  immeasurably  higher,  in  the 
Old  World;  but  this,  the  kernel,  is  not  mentioned. 
All  this  was  mere  "  chance  " !  Yes,  perhaps ;  in  the 
same  sense  that  the  higher  rise  of  the  Himalayas 
than  of  the  Andes  was  mere  "chance";  that  the 
richer  fauna  and  flora  of  the  Old  World  were 
mere  "  chance" ;  that  the  greater  energy  and  stat 
ure  and  cranial  capacity  of  the  Aryan  were  mere 
"chance";  in  the  same  sense  that  everything  in 
Euclidean  space  is  a  mere  "chance".  In  order  to 
justify  any  assertion,  it  will  suffice  to  enlarge 
sufficiently  the  meaning  of  your  terms.  But  we  do 
not  think  that  the  cause  of  truth  is  prospered  by 
such  methods. 

Some  one  may  ask,  however,  is  there  not  some 
grain  of  correctness  in  this  contention  that  ca 
pacity  cannot  always  be  measured  by  achieve- 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  131 

ment?  We  grant  it  cheerfully,  and  we  applaud 
our  opponent  and  his  school  for  calling  this  con 
nection  in  question,  and  bidding  the  current  as 
sumption  answer  for  itself.  We,  too,  would  "test 
all  things,"  but  we  would  also  "hold  fast  the 
good."  The  savant  has  been  unscientific  in  his 
procedure;  he  has  gone  too  far;  he  has  thrown 
out  the  baby  with  the  bath.  He  has  neglected  the 
central  principles  of  the  doctrine  of  probability. 
If  there  be  two  members  of  two  families,  and  one 
succeeds  greatly  in  life,  along  this  path  and  that, 
while  the  other  fails  here,  there,  everywhere,  we 
are  strongly  tempted  to  ascribe  higher  faculty  to 
the  one  than  to  the  other.  Yet  we  may  very  well 
be  wrong.  The  latter  might  put  up  a  plausible 
defence.  He  might  reason  as  this  school  has  done. 
He  might  say  that  the  game  was  called  too  soon, 
that  various  circumstances  continually  favoured 
his  rival,  that  in  a  perfectly  fair  field  he  would 
have  shown  himself  at  least  equal.  All,  then,  that 
we  could  say  would  be,  that  the  Inverse  Proba 
bility  was  somewhat  against  him.  His  failure  is  a 
fact :  it  may  have  been  due  to  lower  faculty,  it  may 
have  been  due  to  something  else;  but  it  stands 
against  him,  and  it  raises  a  certain  probability  of 
inferiority.  No  such  failure  stands  against  the 
other.  No  such  probability  of  inferior  faculty  is 


132  THE    COLOR    LINE 

suggested,  though  it  remains  barely  possible  that 
he  was  really  inferior. 

But  now,  suppose  there  are  a  million  or  a 
trillion  in  each  of  the  two  families;  and  of  these 
the  one  trillion  attain  varying  but  splendid  suc 
cess  along  every  line  of  endeavour,  while  the  other 
trillion  fail,  more  or  less  completely,  along  the 
same  lines.  What,  then,  shall  we  say  ?  What,  then, 
must  we  say?  Unhesitatingly,  that  there  must 
have  been  a  very  decided  difference  of  average  fac 
ulty.  While  we  might  admit  the  measurable  pos 
sibility  that  chance  and  time  and  circumstance 
played  a  conspicuous  and  even  a  determining 
part  in  the  fortunes  of  the  one  pair,  yet  we  could 
by  no  means  admit  the  like  for  any  great  number 
of  pairs ;  and  when  the  number  of  pairs  becomes 
enormously  great,  the  possibility  in  question  be 
comes  vanishingly  small  —  too  small  to  be  dealt 
with  in  any  system  of  our  thought.  Here  is  the 
given  effect:  success  of  the  one  class,  failure 
of  the  other.  What  the  cause  ?  Is  it  mainly,  at 
least,  an  (average)  uniform  difference  of  faculty  ? 
This  cause  is  simple  and  intelligible  and  self- 
repeating;  if  it  worked  in  one  case,  it  would  work 
in  all  cases  and  explain  everything  as  easily  as 
any  one  thing.  But  the  other  cause,  the  conspir 
acy  of  chance  and  time  and  circumstance,  is  not 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  133 

self-repeating,  and  however  great  the  likelihood 
of  a  single  such  chance  combination,  the  likeli 
hood  of  innumerable  such  repetitions  is  inex 
pressibly  small  —  on  the  same  principle  that  the 
chance  of  throwing  heads  once  is  one-half,  but  the 
chance  of  throwing  them  consecutively  twice  is 
only  one-fourth,  and  thrice  is  only  one-eighth, 
and  so  on.  We  need  not  parade  here  the  mathe 
matical  formulae  for  the  reckoning  of  the  so- 
called  inverse  probability  of  each  of  these  two 
hypotheses.  Common  sense  tells  us  at  once  that 
the  difference  of  faculty  is  practically  certain,  the 
chance-effect  or  coincidence-effect  is  practically 
impossible. 

Now,  such  is  the  case  really  presented.  On  the 
one  side,  the  generations  of  generations  of  Cau 
casians  ;  all  have  distinguished  themselves  by  high 
and  varied  achievements  along  every  line  of  ac 
tivity  yet  opened  up  to  man.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  primitives  —  the  backward  races  of  Australia, 
particularly  of  Africa ;  they  seem  scarcely  yet  quite 
conscious.  Not  one  has  done  anything  historical. 
The  failure  is  complete  and  universal.  That  this 
uniform  and  immense  diversity  is  a  mere  acci 
dent,  the  age-long  result  of  a  fortuitous  concourse 
of  circumstances,  or  ascriptible  to  any  such  triv 
ialities  as  those  enumerated,  is  almost  incalcu- 


134  THE    COLOR   LINE 

lably  improbable,  except  we  expand  the  term  ac 
cident  to  include  the  laws  of  gravitation  and  the 
conservation  of  energy.  We  might  as  well  say  that 
the  different  behaviours  of  two  bodies  of  oxy 
gen  and  hydrogen  were  to  be  "explained  as  a 
chance,"  and  did  not  argue  any  greater  mass  in 
the  average  molecule  of  the  former. 

This  conclusion  would  hold,  even  if  the  higher 
faculty  of  the  Caucasian  were  antecedently  ex 
tremely  improbable;  the  a  priori  unlikelihood 
would  become  a  posteriori,  in  view  of  the  facts  of 
history,  a  practical  certainty.  However,  the  case 
is  immeasurably  stronger.  For  a  difference  in 
faculty,  not  merely  in  kind,  but  also  in  degree  of 
faculty,  is  not  only  not  improbable  a  priori  —  it 
is  probable  almost  to  certainty.  All  nature  around 
us  is  one  endless  spectacle  of  such  diversities. 
Equality  is  absolutely  unknown.  This  observa 
tion  is  altogether  too  trite  to  dwell  on.  Will  any 
one  deny  that  the  degrees  of  faculty  are  often  in 
expressibly  apart  in  members  of  the  same  family  ? 
Did  any  amount  of  opportunity  serve  to  raise  any 
other  member  of  the  Bonaparte  family  quite  to  the 
level  of  the  first  Napoleon  ?  If,  then,  such  inher 
ent  disparities  in  individuals  be  undeniable,  is 
parity  among  tribes  or  races  to  be  expected  ?  Is  it 
not,  in  fact,  antecedently  incredible  ?  To  us  it 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  135 

seems  no  more  unlikely  that  one  race  should  be 
superior  to  another  than  that  one  man  should 
be  taller,  or  one  mountain  range  higher,  or  one 
ocean  deeper,  than  another.  The  question  of 
equality  or  inequality  between  two  races  of  men 
is  a  mere  question  of  present  facts,  to  be  settled 
without  any  bias,  now  and  here,  precisely  as  you 
would  settle  the  like  question  between  the  Nu- 
midian  lion  and  the  Colorado  cougar.  And  when 
some  one  pleads  for  the  backward  "primitives" 
that  they  need  only  a  little  more  time,  a  few  mil 
lenniums,  we  answer  once  more:  Very  pos 
sibly;  but  time  may  be  all  that  the  jaguar  needs 
to  surpass  the  tiger,  or  the  ant  to  rival  the  eagle. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  historical  argument.  As 
already  brought  forward  in  our  Chapter  Two,  it  is 
shaken  by  the  scruples  presented  even  as  an  oak 
is  shaken  by  a  zephyr. 

Let  us  now  pass  to  the  anatomical  argument 
(p.  308).  "  There  is  no  doubt  that  great  differences 
exist  in  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  races  of 
man. "  But  these  cannot,  of  themselves,  decide  the 
question  of  superiority.  While  skin,  hair,  lips,  and 
nose  "distinguish  the  African  negro  clearly,"  yet 
Americans  (aboriginal)  have  occasionally  skin, 
lips,  nose,  but  not  hair,  mistakable  "  for  those  of  a 
negro."  In  general,  variations  in  any  race  over- 


136  THE   COLOR   LINE 

lap  variations  in  another,  showing  that  "  existing 
differences,  are  not  fundamental"  (whatever  that 
may  mean).  It  is  held  that  the  varying  propor 
tions  of  the  body  may  be  rather  cultural  than  ra 
cial,  like  the  differences  between  wild  and  do 
mesticated  animals  (Fritsch).  "The  differences 
which  cannot  be  explained  by  functional  causes 
are  few  in  number  and  they  are  not  of  such  a 
character  as  to  stamp  one  race  as  lower  than  the 
other."  Conceded.  But  notice  here  the  logical 
process.  Whatever  can  be  explained  functionally 
"must"  be  explained  functionally;  a  functional 
cause  that  is  possible  is  held  to  be  ipso  facto  cer 
tain  ;  racial  causes  are  antecedently  so  extremely 
improbable  as  to  be  admissible  only  under  ex 
treme  compulsion.  Now  this  is  altogether  vicious. 
The  case  is  just  the  reverse.  It  is  the  functional 
causes  that  are  pressed  into  service,  that  remain 
mere  possibilities.  Even  at  the  utmost  they  re 
fuse  to  explain  all  the  differences.  Some  "few" 
are  admitted  to  be  racial.  But,  as  some  are  cer 
tainly  racial,  then  all  or  at  least  most  may  be  ra 
cial,  the  invocation  of  supposed  functional  causes 
becomes  unnecessary,  and  the  cultural  expla 
nation  improbable.  We  may  apply  the  razor  of 
Occam:  Entia  non  multiplicanda  sunt  prceter 
necessitatem. 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  137 

We  pass  now  to  theromorphisms  among  the 
lower  races  (p.  310).  For  example,  in  man  the 
temporal  and  frontal  bones  are  separated  by  the 
sphenoid  and  parietal,  but  in  the  ape  the  tem 
poral  encroaches  on  the  second  pair  and  meets 
the  frontal.  This  simian  formation  is  found  occa 
sionally  among  all  races,  but  "  more  frequently 
among  primitive  people."  However,  it  is  thought 
"probably"  due  to  "malnutrition  in  early  in 
fancy,"  and  to  be  no  indication  of  closer  kinship 
to  the  ape. 

There  follow  (p.  310)  some  half  dozen  other 
variations,  long  thought  to  be  characteristic,  that 
"  occur  all  over  the  world, "  -  "  but  the  degree  of 
variability  is  not  everywhere  the  same."  "  Presum 
ably  such  variations"  "have  not  yet"  "become 
stable,"  but  are  "still  in  process  of  evolution. " 
"It  might  seem,"  then,  that  the  races  in  which 
they  "are  more  stable"  are  " more  highly  organ 
ized."  It  is  said  that  "this  would  refer,  however, 
only  to  such  features  as  are  not  caused  by  the  influ 
ence  of  environment."  Moreover,  "  it  may  be  that 
the  greater  variability  of  certain  races,  in  regard 
to  these  phenomena,  is  not  an  expression  of  a  lower 
degree  of  development  of  the  whole  group,  but 
of  the  presence  of  a  great  number  of  members  of 
a  family  which  possessed  the  peculiar  character". 


138  THE    COLOR   LINE 

It  is  needless  to  contest  or  criticise  such  ingeni 
ous  maybes.  It  is  enough  to  note,  once  again,  the 
logic.  It  is  not  denied  that  prima  facie  all  these 
phenomena  suggest  and  indicate  lower  develop 
ment  ;  it  is  merely  sought  to  avert  the  indication  by 
devising  an  hypothesis  to  account  for  each  fact 
some  other  way.  In  place  of  the  one  supposition  of 
lower  development,  there  is  put  a  whole  series  of 
independent  suppositions.  In  order  to  avail  for 
the  purpose,  all  of  these  must  hit  true  at  the  same 
time ;  if  each  were  as  likely  as  not,  having  a  prob 
ability  of  one-half,  the  chance  that  five  such  shall 
hit  true  simultaneously  is  only  the  fifth  power  of 
one-half  —  that  is,  one  thirty-second.  This  rapid 
diminution  of  the  chance  of  all  being  correct  is 
wholly  overlooked  in  such  argumentation. 

Regard  is  now  turned  (p.  311)  upon  the  cranial 
features:  "While  the  consideration  of  the  char 
acters  treated  heretofore  has  not  given  any  con 
clusive  evidence  of  the  superiority  of  certain 
races,  the  study  of  the  form  and  size  of  the  head 
seems  to  promise  better  results. " 

Note  here  the  word  "conclusive";  clearly,  it  is 
admitted  that  these  characters  furnish  some 
evidence  of  the  "superiority"  claimed,  but  de 
nied  that  it  is  "conclusive."  But  who  ever  held 
that  such  evidence  was  "conclusive"?  There  is 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  139 

no  single  variety  of  evidence  in  the  case  that  is  or 
can  be  "conclusive."  The  evidence  is  cumulative 
its  conclusiveness  is  found  in  its  mass,  in  the  con- 
currence  of  all  its  disconnected  indications.  This 
is  the  decisive  aspect  of  the  whole  matter,  and  of 
this  there  is  betrayed  no  consciousness. 

Relatively  "to  the  skull,  the  face  of  the  negro 
is  larger  than  that  of  the  American,  whose  face  is, 
in  turn,  larger  than  that  of  the  white.  The  lower 
portion  of  the  face  assumes  larger  dimensions. 
The  alveolar  arch  is  pushed  forward  and  thus 
gains  an  appearance  which  reminds  us  of  the 
higher  apes.  There  is  no  denying  that  this  feature 
is  a  most  constant  character  of  the  black  races 
and  that  it  represents  a  type  slightly  nearer  the 
animal  than  the  European  type.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  broadness  and  flatness  of  the  nose 
of  the  negro  and  of  the  Mongol ;  but  here  again 
we  must  call  to  mind  that  prognathism  and  low, 
broad  noses  are  not  entirely  absent  among  the 
white  races  [neither  are  idiots  and  all  sorts  of 
reversions  to  older  types],  although  the  more 
strongly  developed  forms  which  are  found  among 
the  negroes  do  not  occur.  The  variations  belong 
ing  to  both  races  overlap.  We  find  here  at  least  a 
few  indications  which  tend  to  show  that  the  white 
race  differs  more  from  the  higher  apes  than  [does] 


140  THE   COLOR   LINE 

the  negro.  But  does  this  anatomical  difference 
prove  that  their  mental  capacity  is  lower  than  that 
of  the  white  ?  The  probability  that  this  may  be 
the  case  is  suggested  by  the  anatomical  facts,  but 
they  by  themselves  are  no  proof  that  this  is  the 


case.' 


True;  but  they  are  not  "by  themselves."  They 
are  in  goodly  company  with  a  long  series  of  facts 
already  mentioned,  with  a  still  longer  series  im 
mediately  to  come,  and  with  a  wholly  overwhelm 
ing  confirmative  history  of  ten  thousand  years.  It 
is  idle,  then,  to  say  "they  by  themselves  are  no 
proof. "  The  question  is,  Are  they,  in  their  own 
anatomical  and  historical  connection,  any  proof  ? 
It  is  impossible  not  to  answer,  Yes.  They  are  the 
very  strongest  proof. 

Promising  "to  revert  to  this  subject  later  on," 
the  savant  passes  over  (p.  312)  to  the  important 
matter  of  arrested  development.  Among  such 
phenomena  may  be  noted  that  the  noses  of 
children  are  more  alike  than  those  of  adults.  The 
Mongol  nose  changes  less  during  adolescence 
than  the  White.  According  to  Quatrefages,  the 
Negro  basin  differs  less  from  foetal  forms  and  re 
sembles  more  the  ape  form  than  that  of  other 
races.  All  of  which  points  to  relative  lowness  of 
developmental  type.  "  On  the  other  hand,  the  face 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  141 

of  the  negro  child  is  less  prognathous  than  that 
of  the  adult.  In  this  case  we  find  that  the  more 
energetic  development  tends  to  produce  a  type 
which  is  apparently  lower  than  that  of  the  white. 
We  may  even  go  a  step  farther  and  say  that  the 
ontogenetic  development  of  the  higher  apes  and 
of  man  is  such  that  the  young  forms  are  more 
alike  than  the  old  ones.  While  in  man  the  face  de 
velops  moderately  only,  it  grows  considerably 
among  the  apes.  The  earlier  arrest  in  this  case  is, 
therefore,  an  indication  of  higher  type.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  the  earlier  arrest  alone 
which  determines  the  place  of  a  race,  but  the  di 
rection  of  this  development. "  Hence  he  refuses  to 
draw  a  conclusion  against  the  Mongol,  but  says 
nothing  more  ,of  the  Negro.  The  argument  of  Dr. 
Boas,  at  this  point,  seems  strangely  vague  and  ir 
resolute.  It  seems  hardly  possible  to  join  direct 
issue.  But  this  fact  appears  noteworthy :  The  ape 
face  grows  more  than  the  human ;  also  the  Negro 
face  grows  decidedly  more  than  the  White  —  at 
least  relatively  to  the  head,  since  the  adult  is 
more  prognathous  than  the  child;  this  "more 
energetic  development"  relates,  then,  the  Negro 
to  the  ape  more  nearly  than  the  White  man. 

The  general  reply  that  is  made  (p.  313)  to  the 
argument  from  arrested  development  is  that  the 


142  THE    COLOR   LINE 

female  sex  is  in  all  proportions  more  like  the 
child  than  the  male,  "but  who  would  explain  this 
earlier  arrest  of  development  of  women  as  mark 
of  a  lower  type?"  We  let  this  go  for  what  it  is 
worth,  merely  remarking  that  it  is  thoroughly  in 
validated  by  the  remark  on  page  315  (quoted 
at  p.  144)c 

With  page  313  we  pass  to  the  question  of  the 
length  of  time  during  which  certain  organs  grow, 
especially  the  brain.  "If  we  could  prove  that  the 
brain  of  certain  races  ceases  to  develop  at  an 
earlier  period  than  that  of  others,  the  inference 
of  the  inferiority  of  race  would  seem  highly  prob 
able.  "  Now,  this  is  precisely  what  many  natural 
ists  of  the  first  rank  affirm  is  the  case  with  the 
Negro.  But  it  is  here  declared,  "At  the  present 
time  no  satisfactory  basis  for  such  comparisons 
exists."  Possibly;  —  we  recognize  the  difficulties 
of  the  case :  still,  the  returns  thus  far  received,  so 
far  as  they  indicate  anything  at  all,  do  indicate 
a  much  shorter  period  of  development  for  the 
Negro  (see  p.  147). 

The  next  question  (p.  314)  is  the  crucial  one 
of  br ain- weights  —  "the  one  anatomical  feature 
which  bears  directly  upon  the  question  at  issue. 
It  would  seem  that  the  greater  the  central  ner 
vous  system,  the  higher  the  faculty  of  the  race  and 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  143 

the  greater  its  aptitude  to  mental  achievements. 
.  .  .  There  are  sufficient  data  available  to  es 
tablish  beyond  a  doubt  the  fact  that  the  brain- 
weight  of  the  whites  is  larger  than  of  most  other 
races,  particularly  larger  than  that  of  the  negroes. 
That  of  the  white  male  is  about  1370  grammes. 
The  investigations  of  cranial  capacities  are  quite 
in  accord  with  these  results.  According  to  Topin- 
ard,  the  capacity  of  the  skull  of  males  of  the  neo 
lithic  period  of  Europe  is  about  1560  cc. ;  that  of 
modern  Europeans  is  the  same;  of  the  Mongo 
loid  race  1510  cc.;  of  African  negroes  1405  cc., 
and  of  negroes  of  the  Pacific  ocean  1460  cc. 
Here  we  have,  therefore,  a  decided  difference 
in  favor  of  the  white  race.  These  differences 
cannot  be  explained  as  the  effect  of  difference  in 
stature,  the  negroes  being  at  least  as  tall  as  the 
Europeans." 

In  interpreting  these  facts,  we  must  ask,  Does 
the  increase  in  the  size  of  the  brain  prove  an  in 
crease  in  faculty  ?  This  would  seem  highly  prob 
able  and  facts  may  be  adduced  which  speak  in 
favor  of  this  assumption. "  A  number  of  these,  fa 
miliar  enough,  are  mentioned,  and  there  follows : 
"While  the  force  of  these  arguments  must  be  ad 
mitted,  a  number  of  restricting  facts  must  be  enu 
merated.  The  most  important  among  these  is  the 


144  THE    COLOR   LINE 

difference  in  the  brain-weight  between  men  and 
women.  When  men  and  women  of  the  same 
stature  are  compared  it  is  found  that  the  brain  of 
the  woman  is  much  lighter  than  that  of  the  man. 
Nevertheless,  the  faculty  of  woman  is  undoubt 
edly  just  as  high  as  that  of  man.  This  is  there 
fore  a  case  in  which  smaller  brain-weight  is  ac 
companied  throughout  by  equal  faculty.  We  con 
clude  from  this  fact  that  it  is  not  impossible  that 
the  smaller  brains  of  males  of  other  races  should 
not  (sic)  do  the  same  work  that  is  done  by  the 
larger  brain  of  the  white  race.  But  this  compari 
son  is  not  quite  on  equal  terms,  as  we  may  assume 
that  there  is  a  certain  structural  difference  be 
tween  male  and  female  which  causes  the  differ 
ence  in  size  between  the  sexes,  so  that  compari 
son  between  male  and  female  is  not  the  same  as 
a  comparison  between  male  and  male.  We  will 
also  remember  that,  although  the  brains  of  emi 
nent  men  are,  on  the  average,  larger  than  those  of 
the  average  individual,  there  are  some  small 
brains  included  in  their  number."  We  observe 
that,  the  sentence  "  But  this  comparison.  .  .  ." 
(p.  315)  so  restricts  the  foregoing  "most  important 
restriction"  as  to  deprive  it  of  all  the  force  it  might 
otherwise  have  with  some.  As  to  eminent  men 
having  small  brains,  to  be  sure;  but  eminent  men 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  145 

may  have  small  minds  also;  very  extraordinary 
special  endowment  does  not  by  any  means  imply 
general  endowment;  not  every  genius  is  a  good 
"all-around"  man;  even  as  physically  some  are 
strong  in  arm  but  weak  in  legs,  strong  in  the  chest 
but  weak  in  the  back,  and  so  on.  Besides,  no  one 
has  ever  held  that  mind-power  is  merely  a  matter 
of  brain- weight.  We  hold  only  that,  other  things 
being  equal,  brain-weight  is  a  fair  index  of  mind- 
power.  Perhaps  in  no  two  cases  are  the  other 
things  equal ;  but  in  the  average  of  a  large  number 
of  cases  these  inequalities  are  smoothed  out ;  hence 
it  is  that  we  may  rely  upon  the  average  with  no 
little  confidence. 

"Notwithstanding  these  restrictions,  the  in 
crease  of  the  size  of  the  brain  in  the  higher  ani 
mals,  and  the  lack  of  development  in  microce- 
phalic  individuals  are  fundamental  facts  which 
make  it  more  than  probable  that  increased  size  of 
the  brain  causes  increased  faculty,  although  the 
relation  is  not  quite  as  immediate  as  is  often 
assumed." 

We  ask  no  greater  concession. 

It  is  next  contended  (p.  316)  "that  the  average 
sizes  of  the  brain  of  the  White  are  numerously 
represented  among  other  races".  Middle-sized 
capacities  (1450  to  1650  cc.)  are  found  in  55  per 


146  THE    COLOR   LINE 

cent,  of  Europeans,  and  in  58  per  cent,  of  Afri 
cans  and  Melanesians ;  also  50  per  cent,  of 
Whites  rise  above  1550  (the  mid-line),  27  per 
cent,  of  Africans,  32  per  cent,  of  Melanesians. 
"We  might,  therefore,  anticipate  a  lack  of  men 
of  high  genius,  but  should  not  anticipate  any 
great  lack  of  faculty  among  the  great  mass  of 
negroes  living  among  whites  and  enjoying  the 
advantages  of  the  leadership  of  the  best  men  of 
that  race." 

These  words  seem  to  surrender  everything. 
They  admit  a  sensible  inferiority  of  the  Negro. 
This  defect  may  be  slight  as  expressed  in  ounces, 
and  yet,  as  measured  by  achievement,  it  may  be 
inexpressibly  great.  Nay,  more!  The  admission 
goes  much  further  still.  The  "  anticipation"  of  no 
"great  lack  of  faculty"  is  wholly  unwarranted. 
We  have  no  right  to  assume  that  medium  skull- 
capacities  among  Africans  imply  the  same  medi 
um  faculties  as  would  the  same  capacities  among 
Europeans.  By  no  means!  Not  unless  the  average 
brain-texture  of  the  former  be  as  fine-grained  and 
highly  organized  as  of  the  latter.  But  this  is  very 
improbable.  With  the  difference  in  quantity  will 
most  likely  be  linked  a  far  more  significant  differ 
ence  in  quality.  So  much  is,  in  fact,  admitted  in 
the  next  paragraph,  which  merits  special  atten- 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  147 

tion.  This,  however,  is  hardly  the  correct  stand 
point,  as  mental  ability  certainly  does  not  depend 
upon  the  size  of  the  brain  alone.  The  proper 
point  of  view  of  the  question  is  brought  out  most 
clearly  by  Dr.  H.  H.  Donaldson  whose  opinion  I 
will  quote.  He  says,  "I  consider  the  significance 
of  the  encephalon  to  depend  upon  the  number 
and  size  of  the  cells  composing  it.  In  the  negroes 
and  lower  races  generally,  the  number  of  cells  is 
probably  less  than  in  the  white.  This  is  mainly 
an  inference  from  the  total  weight  of  the  en 
cephalon.  Equally  important  are  the  final  stages 
in  the  enlargement  of  the  structural  elements, 
stages  which  apparently  have  the  result  of  bring 
ing  a  larger  number  of  elements  into  physiologi 
cal  connections  by  means  of  a  very  slight  quan 
titative  extension  of  their  branches.  Changes, 
which  moreover  can  be  followed,  say  in  the  cor 
tex  of  the  brain  of  the  white  in  individuals  thirty 
or  more  years  of  age  (sic).  When  we  compare  the 
capacity  for  education  between  the  lower  and 
higher  races,  we  find  that  the  great  point  of 
divergence  is  at  adolescence  and  the  infer 
ence  is  fairly  good  that  we  shall  not  find  in 
the  brains  of  the  lower  races  the  post-pubertal 
growth  in  the  cortex  to  which  I  have  just 
alluded.  As  to  the  sculpturing  of  the  brain 


148  THE   COLOR   LINE 

surface  by  gyri  and  sulci  we  still  lack  any  good 
racial  characters." 

We  have  no  occasion  to  take  the  slightest  ex 
ception  to  this  statement  of  Professor  Donald 
son's.  But  we  are  at  a  loss  to  perceive  any  support 
it  gives  to  the  general  contention  of  this  address, 
which,  indeed,  it  seems  to  overturn  completely. 
Observe  especially  that  Donaldson  recog 
nizes  unequivocally  "the  great  point  of  diver 
gence  at  adolescence "  "in  the  capacity  for 
education,  between  the  lower  and  higher  races. " 
We  may  be  allowed  to  add  some  later  remarks 
of  the  Chicago  authority,  culled  from  his  "The 
Growth  of  the  Brain"  (1895),  which  also  fully 
sustain,  incidentally,  the  theses  of  our  earlier 
chapters. 

"Statistically  the  results  are  satisfactory" 
(p.  114),  being  said  of  a  table  showing  the  inferior 
brain- weights  of  inferior  races,  indicates  that  Pro 
fessor  Donaldson  recognizes  that  inferiority  un 
reservedly. 

"On  neurological  grounds,  therefore,  nurture 
is  to  be  considered  of  much  less  importance  than 
nature,  and  in  that  sense  the  capacities  we  most 
admire  in  persons  worthy  of  remark  are  certainly 
inborn  rather  than  made"  (p.  344). 

"Size,  therefore,  has  a  meaning;  but  it  is  by 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  149 

no  means  entitled  to  dominate  the  whole  inter 
pretation  of  the  central  system"  (p.  352). 

"No  amount  of  education  will  cause  enlarge 
ment  or  organization  where  the  rough  materials, 
the  cells,  are  wanting;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
where  these  materials  are  present,  they  will  in 
some  degree  become  evident,  whether  purposely 
educated  or  not"  (p.  355). 

"  Races  which  have  progressed  farthest  in  civil 
ization  are  also  those  which  possess  a  large  brain- 
weight;  but  the  converse  of  this  proposition  is 
by  no  means  true,  for  the  tables  also  show  that 
there  are  races  possessed  of  a  large  brain-weight 
and  yet  uncivilized"  (p.  359). 

Having  now  reviewed  all  pertinent  anatomical 
differences,  Dr.  Boas  declares  (p.  317):  "Our 
conclusion  is,  that  there  are  differences  between 
the  physical  characters  of  races  which  make  it 
probable  that  there  may  be  differences  in  faculty. 
No  unquestionable  fact,  however,  has  been  found 
yet  which  would  prove  beyond  a  doubt  that  it 
will  be  impossible  for  certain  races  to  attain  a 
higher  civilization." 

This  conclusion  is  drawn  so  mildly  that  it 
seems  hard  to  quarrel  with  it.  But  we  must  ob 
serve  that  it  is  not  exactly  a  question  of  "higher 
civilization,"  but  of  the  highest,  as  high  as  the 


150  THE   COLOR   LINE 

Caucasian  has  attained  or  can  attain:  no  one 
doubts  that  the  Guinea  Negro  may  be  improved 
-  he  has  been  improved  right  here  in  the  United 
States;  the  question  is,  can  he  keep  pace  with 
the  White  man  ?  and  everything  thus  far  sug 
gests,  and  almost  compels,  the  answer,  No! 
Again,  it  is  not  precisely  a  question  of  "impossi 
bility"  but  of  "improbability."  All  things  are 
possible  with  God  and  even  to  the  thought  of 
man;  but  for  the  practical  reason,  the  improb 
ability  here  admitted  is  controlling.  Once  more, 
it  is  not  by  any  means  a  matter  of  one  "unques 
tionable  fact;"  such  a  single  decisive  indicium 
is  nowhere  easy  to  find  and  can  seldom  be  de 
manded  ;  it  is  the  consensus  of  all  the  indications 
that  is  practically  conclusive,  and  it  is  this  con 
sensus  that  has  been  so  unfortunately  disre 
garded. 

The  remaining  ten  pages  of  this  address  are 
devoted  to  "the  psychological  characteristics  of 
primitive  people."  "This  investigation  is  ex 
tremely  difficult  and  unpromising";  nor  do  we 
think  there  can  be  much  profit  in  following  it  up 
closely,  since  hardly  anywhere  is  the  ground 
traversed  solid  beneath  the  feet.  The  method 
employed  is  a  continuation  of  that  with  which 
we  are  already  familiar.  One  by  one  are  taken 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  151 

up  the  counts  of  the  indictment  brought  against 
the  primitive  mind  by  ethnologists,  such  as 
Wuttke,  Klemm,  Eichthal,  De  Gobineau,  Nott 
and  Gliddon.  Thus,  Wuttke  and  Klemm  char 
acterize  the  civilized  races  as  active,  all  others  as 
passive,  and  refer  even  American  civilization  to 
contact  with  some  earlier  form.  Eichthal  thinks 
of  society  as  an  organism,  the  White  race  repre 
senting  the  male,  the  Black  the  female*  principle. 
De  Gobineau  designates  the  Yellow  as  the  male, 
the  Black  as  the  female  element,  and  admits 
only  the  White  as  noble  and  gifted.  Nott  and 
Gliddon  ascribe  only  animal  instincts  to  the  lower 
races,  but  the  civilizing  instinct  to  the  White 
only.  All  such  schematism  seems  to  us  highly 
:  unscientific  and  is  justly  rejected.  Tylor  and 
Spencer  analyze  the  primitive  mind  ingeniously, 
but  do  not  assume  that  it  is  racially  determined, 
though  something  of  the  kind  seems  implied  in 
evolution.  Waitz  alone  meets  with  sanction  in 
declaring:  "According  to  the  current  opinion  the 
stage  of  culture  of  a  people  or  of  an  individual  is 
largely  or  exclusively  a  product  of  his  faculty. 
We  maintain  that  the  reverse  is  at  least  just  as 
true.  The  faculty  of  man  does  not  designate  any 
thing  but  how  much  and  what  he  is  able  to 
achieve  in  the  immediate  future  and  depends 


152  THE    COLOR   LINE 

upon  the  stages  of  culture  through  which  he  has 
passed  and  the  one  he  has  reached."  This  is 
declared  to  be  "the  true  point  of  view"  and  to 
be  "expressed  most  happily."  To  us  it  seems  far 
out  of  focus  and  expressed  about  as  emptily  and 
unhappily  as  possible.  Certainly  it  is  not  the 
clearest  thinking  that  regards  a  proposition  and 
its  "reverse"  as  "at  least  just  as  true."  Remem 
bering  that  faculty  is  related  to  facio,  we  accept 
the  statement  as  to  what  it  "designates;"  but  to 
say  that  it  "depends  upon  the  stages  of  culture 
through  which  he  has  passed  and  the  one  he 
has  reached,"  is  like  saying  that  a  youth's 
mathematical  faculty  depends  upon  the  fact  that 
he  "has  passed  through"  the  Freshman,  Sopho 
more,  and  Junior  "stages  of  culture"  and  "has 
reached"  the  Senior.  He  may  do  this  with  the 
genius  of  Gauss,  or  he  may  do  it  in  a  perfunctory 
manner,  without  the  ability  to  grasp  and  master 
such  elementary  notions  as  derivative  and  inte 
gral.  If  Waitz  should  now  reply  that  such  a 
youth  has  not  really  "passed  through  these 
stages,"  then  we  answer  that  he  thereby  assigns 
a  new  meaning  to  the  phrase  and  evacuates  his 
words  of  all  definite  import.  In  common  par 
lance,  the  mathematical  faculty  of  Gauss,  his 
power  to  do  in  the  immediate  future,  was  amaz- 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  153 

ing  in  his  childhood,  before  he  reached  any  no 
table  "stages  of  culture"  in  mathematics.  Still 
more  striking  is  the  case  of  Pascal.  We  do  not 
deny  that  there  may  be  some  occult  sense  in 
which  Waitz's  words  are  true ;  but  it  is  scarcely 
worth  guessing  at  and,  when  divined,  it  will 
hardly  add  much  to  the  clear  deliverances  of 
Bischoff,  Donaldson,  and  others.* 

The  address  before  us  now  examines  (p.  319) 
some  of  the  "mental  qualities"  held  to  be  "racial 
characteristics"  of  the  "primitives,"  and  rejects 
them  one  by  one  as  "not  proven."  Such  are  "im 
pulsiveness,"  "inability  of  concentration,"  "lack 
of  originality."  In  our  judgement,  the  most  im 
portant  of  all  instincts  of  civilization  is  the  specu 
lative,  the  pure-scientific,  the  impulse  to  know 
simply  for  the  sake  of  knowing  —  most  splendidly 
present  in  the  Greek  and  the  Teuton.  It  seems 
hard  to  believe,  and  certainly  there  is  not  a 
scintilla  of  evidence,  that  any  such  is  a  native 
quality  of  the  Negro  or  Australian  mind.  But  in 
these  pages  we  find  no  firm  basis  for  contention; 
the  facts  are  not  yet  definitely  ascertained. 
Enough  that,  if  along  these  lines  no  case  is  made 
out  against  the  primitive  —  and  we  have  care 
fully  refrained  from  trying  to  make  out  any  — 

*See  supra  pp.  92-96. 


154  THE   COLOR   LINE 

yet  avowedly  no  case  is  made  out  for  him;  and 
the  evidence,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  certainly  not  in 
his  favour. 

In  conclusion,  page  324  raises  the  important 
question  whether  "the  faculty  of  man  has  been 
improved  by  civilization,  and  particularly,  if  that 
of  primitive  races  may  be  improved  by  this 
agency."  Civilization  and  domestication  cause 
analogous  anatomical  changes,  and  it  is  likely 
that  "mental  changes"  "go  hand  in  hand  with 
them."  But  no  more. 

No  "progressive  changes  of  the  human  organ 
ism,"  "particularly  no  advance  in  the  size  or 
complexity  of  the  structure  of  the  central  nervous 
system  caused  by  the  cumulative  influences  of 
civilization  can  be  proved."  There  are  consider 
able  psychic  changes  consequent  on  domestica 
tion  and  civilization;  but  these  are  due  to  en 
vironment.  Any  changes  progressive  or  trans 
missible  by  heredity  seem  doubtful.  None  of 
this  do  we  contest.  On  "relapses,"  we  need  not 
pause. 

Hear,  then,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter 
(p.  326) :  "The  anatomical  evidence  is  such,  that 
we  may  expect  to  find  the  races  not  equally 
gifted.  While  we  have  no  right  to  consider  one 
more  ape-like  than  the  other,  the  differences  are 


PLEA   AND    COUNTERPLEA  155 

such  that  some  have  probably  greater  mental 
vigour  than  others.  The  variations  are,  however, 
such  that  we  may  expect  many  individuals  of  all 
races  to  be  equally  gifted,  while  the  number  of 
men  and  women  of  higher  ability  will  differ." 

This  states  the  case  as  favourably  as  possible 
for  the  "primitives,"  and,  as  we  think  for  reasons 
already  assigned  (p.  146),  far  too  favourably. 
Nevertheless,  we  accept  it  precisely  as  presented ; 
for  the  logical  purposes  of  this  book,  the  con 
cession  of  Negro  inferiority  here  made  is  abso 
lutely  sufficient. 

"We  did  not  find  proof  of  cumulative  increase 
of  faculty  caused  by  civilization." 

Accordingly,  the  Negro  being  concededly  in 
ferior  to  the  White,  there  is  no  hope  of  raising 
him  to  the  White  level  by  education  or  civiliza 
tion  —  precisely  our  fundamental  contention. 

Finally,  "the  average  faculty  of  the  white 
race  is  found  to  the  same  degree  in  a  large  pro 
portion  of  individuals  of  all  other  races,  and  al 
though  it  is  probable  that  some  of  these  races 
may  not  produce  as  large  a  proportion  of  great 
men  as  our  own  race,  there  is  no  reason  to  sup 
pose  that  they  are  unable  to  reach  the  level  of 
civilization  represented  by  the  bulk  of  our  own 
people"  (p.  327). 


156  THE    COLOR   LINE 

To  us,  these  closing  words  read  very  much  like 
a  plea  of  confession  and  avoidance.  It  is  admitted 
that  the  Negro  is  inferior  to  the  Caucasian,  that 
the  summits  of  genius  he  will  rarely,  if  ever,  reach; 
but  from  the  fact  that  many  Negro  brains  equal 
many  Caucasian  brains  in  weight  (p.  146),  the 
same  is  inferred  of  "the  average  faculty."  Here 
by,  as  already  pointed  out,  there  is  overlooked 
the  all-important  qualification  that  it  is  not  a 
mere  matter  of  weight,  as  well  as  the  highly  ap 
proved  quotation  from  Donaldson,  as  to  post- 
adolescent  development  (p.  147).  The  inference, 
then,  is  illegitimate  that  "they,"  i.  e.9  "the  large 
proportion"  with  "the  average  faculty"  (or 
rather,  average  brain-weight)  of  the  Caucasian, 
may  "reach  the  level  of  civilization  represented 
by  the  bulk  of  our  own  people."  Moreover,  it 
takes  no  account  of  those  not  included  in  this 
"large  proportion,"  who  are  not  a  few.  But  the 
language  is  too  vague  to  combat.  We  do  not  know 
what  significance,  relative  or  absolute,  is  attached 
to  the  group  of  great  men,  nor  what  is  thought 
of  the  civilization  of  the  bulk  of  our  own  people. 
Perhaps  it  is  held,  with  D'Annunzio,  that  the 
hands  of  the  peasant  are  "fit  to  clean  out  a 
stable,  but  not  to  raise  in  a  legislative  assembly." 
In  any  case,  it  is  enough  to  remember  that  even 


PLEA    AND    COUNTERPLEA  157 

the  admittedly  higher  Caucasian  average  is  none 
too  high,  that  it  needs  heightening,  that  it  cannot 
stand  the  least  lowering,  and  to  recall  the  lines 
of  Browning  already  quoted  (p.  88).  Moreover, 
this  is  an  age  of  intense  competition  daily  inten 
sified.  The  margin  is  so  small  that  the  least 
difference  becomes  important  and  even  decisive. 
A  very  slight  discrimination  in  freight  rates  may 
turn  the  tides  of  commerce  this  way  or  that  and 
make  or  unmake  a  metropolis.  Is  it  not  clear, 
then,  that  in  the  keen  competition  of  races  the 
conceded  inferiority  of  the  Black  must  turn  the 
scale  against  him  more  and  more  and  doom  him 
finally  to  defeat  and  disappearance  beyond  the 
reach  of  even  the  longest-armed  philanthropy? 
While  then  we  greatly  admire  the  testing,  prob 
ing  spirit  of  Dr.  Boas,  and  thank  him  heartily  for 
his  broad-minded  plea  for  the  "primitives,"  we 
are  unable  to  find  in  any  of  his  pages  anything 
but  strong  confirmations  of  the  theses  of  our  ear 
lier  chapters. 


CHAPTER  FIVE 

A    DIP    INTO   THE   FUTURE 

And  the  individual  withers, 
And  the  world  is  more  and  more 

TENNYSON 

THE  reader  may  find  the  foregoing  discussion 
convincing;  we  think  the  unprejudiced  reader 
will  almost  surely  find  it  so,  and  yet  he  may  not 
find  it  satisfactory.  For  he  may  urge  that  no  solu 
tion  has  been  propounded  or  foreshadowed  for 
the  problem,  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  enough 
merely  to  know  what  the  problem  is  —  its  dangers, 
its  difficulties,  and  its  terrible  threat.  This  objec 
tion  is  perfectly  just.  Up  to  this  moment  our  sole 
concern  has  been  to  establish  unshakably  firm 
the  central  position,  of  the  supreme  and  all- 
overshadowing  importance  of  preserving  the 
American-Caucasian  blood  pure  and  untainted 
and  dedicated  to  the  development  of  the  highest 
humanity.  But  this  accomplished,  we  have  no 


A    DllP    INTO    THE    FUTURE  159 

disposition  to  shirk  another  task,  to  avoid  another 
question,  however  delicate,  disagreeable,  or  de 
pressing.  This  question  is:  What  has  the  future 
in  store  for  the  Negro  ?  If  social  equality  must  be 
resolutely  denied  him  forever,  if  he  is  to  be 
treated  as  an  outcast  and  a  pariah  because  of 
his  race  and  the  weight  of  inheritance  which  he 
can  never  shake  off  from  his  shoulders,  what 
hope  remains  ?  Where  are  the  blessings  of  free 
dom  ?  Is,  then,  emancipation  but  an  apple  of 
Sodom,  turning  to  ashes  on  his  lips  ?  These  are 
fearful  questions,  but  we  must  not  quail  before 
them;  we  must  confront  them  firmly,  calmly, 
with  eyes  wide  open  to  all  the  facts  in  the  case, 
and  with  ears  unclosed  to  all  the  teachings  of 
history. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing,  it  is  vain  to  appeal 
to  Education.  We  know  that  many  noble  and  ex 
cellent  spirits  expect  wonders  from  this  potent 
agency.  As  an  educator  ourself,  we  can  have  no 
interest  or  motive  in  unduly  distrusting  or  mini 
mizing  its  capabilities.  The  work  that  education 
may  accomplish  is  undoubtedly  great;  and  in 
spite  of  many  discouraging  disappointments,  the 
task  of  educating  the  Negro  will  assuredly  be 
bravely  performed,  in  larger  and  larger  measure, 
for  all  generations  to  come. 


160  THE    COLOR   LINE 

But  it  is  a  colossal  error  to  suppose  that  race 
improvement,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  term, 
can  be  wrought  by  education.*  The  reason  is 
simple  and  easily  understood:  Race-improve 
ment  is  organic;  education  is  extraorganic.  Any 
change  or  amelioration  that  affects  the  race,  the 
stock,  the  blood,  must  be  inherited;  but  educa 
tion  is  not  inherited,  it  is  not  inheritable.  It  must 
be  renewed  generation  after  generation  in  each 
individual.  The  Sisyphus-stone  of  culture  is  rolled 
with  infinite  toil  up  the  steep  ascent  by  the 
fathers;  it  thunders  instantly  back,  and  must  be 
rolled  up  again  with  equal  agony  and  bloody 
sweat  by  their  children.  All  must  start  at  the  same 
centre  of  ignorance,  and  beat  out  a  long  and  ardu 
ous  path  to  the  ever-widening  circumference  of 
the  farthest  knowledge.  The  son  of  the  learned 
and  the  son  of  the  unlearned  have  equal  chance 
side  by  side  in  the  race  for  learning.  If  the  children 
of  the  cultured  acquire  more  readily  than  their 
fellows,  it  is  not  because  they  have  inherited 
parental  culture,  but  only  the  inherited  parental 
capacity  for  culture;  not  because  their  parents 
knew  more,  but  because  they  had  more  inborn 
power  to  know.  Had  circumstances  doomed  the 
savant  to  ignorance,  his  children  would  not  have 

*  To  this  truth,  see  various  testimonies,  pp.  149,  154,  ct  passim. 


A   DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  161 

suffered  in  their  ability  to  learn.  Nay  more,  if 
devotion  to  intellectual  pursuits  has  any  influence 
at  all  on  the  native  quality  of  offspring,  as  it  may 
possibly  have  in  extreme  cases,  it  would  seem  to 
be  more  probably  hurtful  than  helpful;  for,  by 
impairing  nutrition  of  the  germinal  cells,  excessive 
intellectual  activity  may  induce  impotence  and 
sterility;  and  the  fecundity  of  the  very  highly 
cultured  seems  to  have  suffered  measurably  in 
Europe,  if  not  in  the  United  States.* 

These  propositions  lie  beyond  possible  con 
tradiction.  We  need  not  raise  the  question  of  the 
general  Weismannian  theory  of  heredity;  but 
we  must  recognize,  as  wholly  undeniable,  that  the 
characters  and  qualities  acquired  by  education 
are  not  in  any  degree  inherited.  The  testimony 
of  every-day  observation  is,  on  this  point,  so 
unanimous  and  so  overwhelming  that  further  in 
sistence  would  seem  superfluous.  We  may  refer 
however,  to  the  broad,  patent,  universally  rec 
ognized  fact  that  centuries  of  culture  and 
most  careful  training  have  never  been  known 
to  improve  the  breed,  the  stock,  the  inherent 
quality  of  any  race  of  men  or  plants  or  domestic 

*  "The  tendency  of  human  multiplication  is  such  that  the  most  highly 
cultured  families  tend  to  disappear  .  .  .  Educational  influences  .  .  . 
are  superficial  as  compared  to  hereditary  causes. " 

Franz  Boas,  Pro.  Am.  Ass.  for  the  Adv.  of  Science,  1894,  p.  325. 


162  THE    COLOR   LINE 

animals.  Wherever  any  of  these  have  been  organ 
ically  modified,  it  has  been  by  other  agencies, 
more  especially  by  some  form  of  natural  or  artifi 
cial  selection.  While  the  extra-organic  develop 
ment  of  civilization  has  gone  on  and  still  goes 
on,  and  apparently  will  go  on  apace  indefinitely, 
under  the  guidance  of  science  and  invention, 
there  is  no  evidence  of  any  organic  improvement 
in  man  in  thousands  of  years,  since  the  working 
of  natural  selection  ceased  to  be  progressive. 
The  Mesopotamian  of  to-day  is  surely  not  the 
superior  of  his  sculptured  ancestors  who  observed 
and  measured  the  precession  of  the  equinoxes 
nearly  6,000  years  ago.  The  Jew  of  to-day  can 
boast  nothing  above  the  authors  of  the  Psalms, 
and  of  Job,  and  of  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah.  The 
modern  Greek  may  or  may  not  have  descended 
from  Homer  or  Pericles;  but,  surely,  he  has  not 
ascended  very  far.  It  is  needless  to  multiply  illus 
trations.  We  believe  firmly  in  the  mutability  of 
species ;  but  the  phenomenon  of  the  permanence, 
even  of  sub-species  and  varieties,  is  far  more 
universal  and  impressive. 

Education,  then,  can  do  much;  but  its  mission 
is  to  the  present  —  it  cannot  stamp  itself  upon  the 
future.  The  limits  of  its  efficiency,  though  abso 
lutely  wide,  are  relatively  narrow  and  are  speedily 


A    DIP    INTO    THE    FUTURE  163 

reached.  It  plays  with  man  the  function  of  care 
and  training,  of  cultivation  and  domestication, 
with  the  lower  animals  and  with  the  products  of 
the  soil.  By  diligent  tillage,  by  the  spade,  the  hoe, 
the  plough,  by  irrigation  and  fertilization,  the 
planter  may  greatly  increase  the  yield  of  his  field 
or  his  orchard  and  even  refine,  in  a  measure, 
the  quality  of  his  fruit  or  his  grain.  By  feeding, 
grooming,  and  the  like,  the  horse-dealer  may 
much  improve  the  appearance  and  serviceability 
of  his  horses  and  may  even  add  no  little  to 
their  health,  vigour,  and  value.  It  would  be  in 
sanity  in  these  men  to  neglect  or  despise  such 
artificial  helps  and  to  trust  their  crops  and  their 
stock  to  grow  and  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
The  farmer  and  the  stockman  know  very  well 
that  only  by  the  highest  cultivation  and  the 
most  watchful  attention  can  they  secure  the 
best  results  in  field  or  fold  and  maintain  them 
selves  in  competition  with  wide-awake  neigh 
bours. 

But  they  also  know,  not  less  certainly,  that  the 
maximal  results  of  such  instrumentalities  are  not 
far  away  but  are  hemmed  within  a  very  finite 
circle.  Care  and  culture  soon  do  their  best  and 
attain  at  least  practically  their  ne  plus  ultra.  For 
any  progressive  improvement,  whether  in  animal 


164  THE    COLOR   LINE 

or  in  plant,  the  agriculturist  knows  that  he  must 
look  to  the  seed.  This  he  must  select  with  the 
utmost  skill  and  caution  —  if  he  would  even  main 
tain  the  level  of  excellence  already  reached,  if 
he  would  not  have  the  "stock"  lapse  back  to  an 
ancient  inferior  average. 

All  this  doctrine,  which  every  one  admits  so 
instantly  and  unhesitatingly  in  its  application  to 
wheat,  corn,  and  cotton;  potatoes,  apples,  and 
oranges ;  grapes  and  melons ;  sheep,  cattle,  swine, 
and  horses;  bees,  birds,  and  fishes  —  all  holds 
with  full  force  and  with  inconceivable  significance 
when  applied  to  men.  Education  is  of  exceeding 
importance.  People  that  neglect  it  thereby 
doom  themselves  to  hopeless  subordination ;  they 
drop  out  of  the  race  for  the  prizes  of  life;  they 
surrender  unconditionally  to  their  rivals  and 
commercial  foes.  Training  and  culture  of  the 
highest  type  are  necessary  to  secure  the  realization 
of  potentialities,  to  make  the  very  best  of  the 
material  offered  at  hand ;  necessary,  not  only  now 
and  here,  but  everywhere  and  all  the  time.  Any 
neglect  or  indifference  at  this  point  must 
prove  fatal.  The  husbandman  dares  not  de 
prive  his  corn  of  a  single  "ploughing,"  or  leave 
his  herd  one  night  unprotected  from  the  wolf 
and  the  cold. 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  165 

But  it  is  the  sheerest  folly  to  expect  of  educa 
tion  the  impossible  —  to  dream  that  it  can  affect 
the  blood,  or  transmute  racial  qualities,  or  smooth 
down  the  inequalities  between  individuals  of  the 
same  breed,  much  less  between  the  breeds  them 
selves.  Why,  if  education  could  lift  the  Negro  to 
the  Caucasian  level,  to  what,  pray,  in  the  mean 
time  would  it  lift  the  Caucasian  himself? 
We  repeat,  and  the  repetition  cannot  be 
made  too  emphatic,  there  is  no  hope  what 
ever  of  any  organic  improvement,  of  any 
race  betterment  of  the  Negro,  from  any  or 
from  all  extra-organic  agencies  of  education 
or  religion  or  civilization.  Let  us,  then,  educate 
the  negro,  to  make  him  a  more  useful  and 
productive,  a  law-abiding  and  happier  member 
of  the  community;  but  let  us  not  hope  too  much 
from  this  education,  if  we  would  not  be  bitterly 
disappointed. 

Immediately  after  the  Civil  War,  in  the  hal 
cyon  days  of  reconstruction,  the  higher  education 
was  administered  copiously  to  the  Negro,  in  the 
honest  belief  that  it  was  the  catholicon  for 
his  ills;  and  universities  for  the  Coloured  man 
sprang  up  thick  about  us.  Here,  in  New  Orleans, 
there  are  at  least  three.  A  sadder  and  at  the  same 
time  a  more  ludicrous  sight  we  have  never  be- 


166  THE    COLOR    LINE 

held  than  on  the  occasion  of  a  call  upon  the 
President  of  one  of  these  soi-disant  universities. 
We  waited  in  the  ante-room  for  the  dismissal  of 
his  class  in  psychology.  At  last  the  bell  tapped, 
and  half  a  dozen  Mulatto  women,  the  whole  class, 
emerged  from  the  lecture-room  of  this  distin 
guished  scholar,  whose  name  was  not  unknown 
in  Europe.  With  a  look  of  infinite  despair,  which 
not  even  his  mistaken  enthusiasm  for  humanity 
could  quite  chase  away,  the  heavy-hearted  lec 
turer  followed  and  proceeded  to  conduct  us 
through  the  building  to  his  own  residence.  We 
passed  through  but  one  room  where  class  exer 
cises  were  in  progress.  An  olive-coloured  young 
man  was  at  the  board,  trying  to  explain  to  a 
Mulatto  woman,  the  only  member  of  the  class, 
the  mysterious  nature  of  a  perpendicular.  He 
appeared  very  earnest  in  his  exposition,  but  un 
able  to  awaken  any  answering  intelligence.  To 
us,  it  seemed  that  the  force  of  folly  could  no  fur 
ther  go;  and  our  commiseration  for  the  highly 
cultured  theologian,  since  released  from  his 
labours,  who  had  so  utterly  forgotten  the  famous 
prohibition  near  the  close  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  was  and  remains  even  to  this  day  pain 
fully  intense. 

We  hear  less  nowadays  of  the  saving  efficacy 


A   DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  167 

of  Greek,  Latin,  and  the  Calculus,*  but  all  the 
more  of  the  imperative  necessity  for  industrial 
training  —  the  idea  which  Mr.  Washington  has 
championed  so  vigorously  and  to  which  Mr. 
Carnegie  has  lent  the  sanction  of  his  munificence. 
Undoubtedly  this  notion,  if  not  far  wiser,  is  at 
least  far  more  practicable.  While  the  higher 
culture  at  "coloured  universities,"  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases,  merely  spoils  a  plough-hand  or 
house-maid,  industrial  training,  like  that  given 
at  Tuskegee,  may  very  reasonably  be  expected 
to  raise  sensibly  the  productive  efficiency  of  the 
Negro,  and  to  elevate  the  general  standard  of  his 
life  through  the  formation  of  valuable  habits  of 
manual  dexterity,  of  accuracy,  of  conscientious 
ness,  and  of  thrift  —  not  to  mention  occasional 
great  gain  in  scientific  equipment,  or  even  some 
artistic  awakening.  One  cannot  deny,  then,  that 
Mr.  Washington  has  undertaken  a  great  and 
beneficent  work  for  his  race  —  one  in  which  some 
measurable  success  may  reasonably  be  hoped 
for. 

*  But  the  Boston  Negroid  still  swears  by  the  classics  and  logarithms, 
and  regards  the  recent  change  of  front  as  little  less  than  a  betrayal  and 
surrender.  Similarly,  but  with  recognition  of  the  merits  of  Mr.  Wash 
ington's  idea,  Dubois,  in  his  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  and  the  sympa 
thetic  reviewer  in  The  Nation.  In  this  controversy  we  think  that  Dubois 
and  Washington  are  both  right  and  both  wrong;  but  the  higher  and 
deeper  right,  as  well  as  wrong,  belongs  to  the  former. 


168  THE    COLOR   LINE 

But  our  sympathy  with  such  rational  and  well- 
directed  efforts  must  not  blind  us  to  near-lying 
limitations,  which  no  might  of  man  can  possibly 
remove.  Let  it  be  said,  then,  boldly  that  the  Negro 
will  not  enter  generally  or  in  great  numbers  into 
the  field  of  skilled  labour  —  neither  in  the  North 
nor  in  the  South.  It  is,  of  course,  not  unattended 
with  danger  to  venture  into  the  realm  of  proph 
ecy,  but  in  this  case  the  bases  of  prediction 
seem  particularly  broad  and  solid.  We  all  know 
that  skilled  labour  is  daily  growing  more  and 
more  thoroughly  organized.  Rightly  or  wrongly, 
for  weal  or  for  woe,  it  regards  capital,  especially 
combined  and  organized  capital,  if  not  as  its 
enemy,  at  least  as  its  exploiter,  prepared  at  every 
instant  to  make  the  very  most  of  it — to  assail  it 
at  any  and  every  exposed  point,  to  throttle  it  by 
any  and  every  means,  and  to  reduce  it  to  serf 
dom.  As  over  against  the  might  of  accumulated 
millions,  the  labourer  cannot  fail  to  perceive  his 
utter  impotence  -  -  he  is  not  even  a  drop  of  a 
bucket.  It  is  only  in  great  numbers,  in  compact 
and  readily  wielded  organizations,  that  the  indi 
vidual  workman  can  count  for  anything  whatever 
—  can  find  any  hope  of  escape  from  the  veriest 
servitude.  It  is  idle  to  suppose  that,  in  many  years 
to  come,  capital  will  not  continue  to  mass  itself 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  169 

into  formidable  aggregations,  or  that  labour  will 
cease  to  array  itself  in  firmer  and  firmer  unions 
and  associations  for  self-protection  and  for  main 
tenance  or  elevation  of  the  standard  of  life,  the 
minimum  of  subsistence. 

Now,  to  such  federations  of  labour,  to  such  I 
combinations  for  the  commonweal,  involving, 
as  they  so  often  do,  the  most  determined  self- 
renunciation,  the  most  heroic  self-sacrifice,  even 
the  Caucasian  nature  is  by  no  means  full-grown, 
and  the  Negroid  is  altogether  unequal.  There  is 
not  the  slightest  probability  that  the  great  labour 
organizations  would,  in  general,  think  of  admit 
ting  to  their  membership  an  element  of  such 
notable  weakness  as  the  Negro  would  certainly 
be.  Such  would  be  the  case,  even  if  other  consid-~" 
erations  were  absent.  But  they  are  present.  As 
inferiors,  accustomed  to  a  lower  standard  of  life 
and  more  pliant  to  the  demands  of  employers, 
the  Negroes  would  present  the  same  problem 
and  the  same  menace  as  the  Chinese  —  only  in  a 
more  aggravated  form.  In  their  admission  in 
large  numbers  to  the  ranks  of  skilled  labour, 
this  latter  could  not  fail  to  see  a  terrible  and  in 
stant  threat  of  reduced  wages,  of  lowered  life, 
of  baser  thraldom.  Race  prejudice,  if  you  call 
it  so,  would  blaze  out  immediately,  and  with 


170  THE   COLOR    LINE 

irresistible  violence.  It  makes  not  the  slightest 
difference  whether  labour  would  be  right  or 
wrong,  justified  or  unjustified;  it  would  be  the 
instinct  of  self-preservation  fanned  suddenly  into 
vehement  flame,  and  nothing  could  withstand 
it.  As  an  example  in  point,  take  the  violent  oppo 
sition  offered  a  few  years  ago  by  the  miners  of 
Illinois  to  the  importation  of  Negro  labourers; 
take  the  recent  practically  total  expulsion  of 
Negroes,  many  of  them  peaceable  and  unoffend 
ing,  from  various  towns,  districts,  and  counties 
in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Kansas,  Illi 
nois,  and  elsewhere.  Consider  all  this  as  unrea 
sonable,  as  outrageous  —  it  matters  not;  it  shows 
the  temper  of  the  American-Caucasian  labourer, 
which  will  hardly  tolerate  the  competition  of  his 
equals,  and  certainly  not  of  any  form  of  labour 
lower  than  his  own.  And  in  defence  of  what  he 
regards  as  the  most  important  and  most  sacred 
of  all  his  rights,  he  will  not  hesitate  for  an  in 
stant  at  the  adoption  of  means.* 

*Hear  the  testimony  of  the  ablest  of  Negroids,  Professor  W.  E.  B.  Du- 
bois,  in  his  admirable  sociologic  study,  "The  Philadelphia  Negro ": 

"  How  now  has  this  exclusion  been  maintained  ?  In  some  cases  by  the 
actual  inclusion  of  the  word  '  white '  among  qualifications  for  entrance 
into  certain  trade  unions.  More  often,  however,  by  leaving  the  matter  of 
color  entirely  to  local  bodies,  who  make  no  general  rule,  but  invariably 
fail  to  admit  a  colored  applicant  except  under  pressing  circumstances. 
This  is  the  most  workable  system  and  is  adopted  by  nearly  all  trade 
unions"  (p.  128).  "To  repeat,  then,  the  real  motives  back  of  this  exclu- 


A    DIP    INTO   THE    FUTURE  171 

Accordingly,  we  may  confidently  affirm  that 
the  experiment  of  Mr.  Washington  and  his 
Northern  multi-millionaire  admirers,  to  solve  the 
race  problem  by  making  of  the  Negro  a  skilled 
labourer,  may  indeed  be  magnificent,  but,  in 
any  large  measure,  it  cannot  succeed.  If  at  any 
time  it  seemed  to  promise  any  very  wide  success, 
it  would  rouse  a  race  animosity,  North  and 
South,  the  like  of  which  we  have  not  yet  beheld.  J 

What  fields  of  employment,  then,  remain  open 
to  the  Negroid  ?  We  answer :  Those  he  has 
thus  far  occupied,  where  there  is  no  great  organ 
ized  competition  of  the  Whites.  The  plantation 
and  the  countless  forms  of  personal  and  occa 
sional  service  are  undoubtedly  the  regions  where 
his  abilities  may  be  most  naturally  and  most 
profitably  employed.  There,  too,  his  better  qual 
ities,  his  endowments  both  of  mind  and  of  body, 
find  fullest  and  most  useful  play.  Small  farming 

sion  are  plain:  A  large  part  is  simple  race  prejudice,  always  strong  in 
working  classes  and  intensified  by  me  peculiar  history  of  the  Negro  in  this 
country.  Another  part,  and  possibly  a  more  potent  part,  is  the  natural 
spirit  of  monopoly  and  the  desire  to  keep  up  wages.  .  .  .  Moreover,  in 
this  there  is  one  thoroughly  justifiable  consideration  that  plays  a  great 
part:  namely,  the  Negroes  are  used  to  low  wages  —  can  live  on  them, 
and  consequently  would  fight  less  fiercely  than  most  whites  against 
reduction"  (p.  129).  .  .  .  "  The  Negroes  of  the  city  who  have  trades 
either  give  them  up  and  hire  out  as  waiters  and  laborers,  or  they  become 
job  workmen  and  floating  hands,  catching  a  bit  of  carpentering  here  or 
a  little  brickwork  or  plastering  there  at  reduced  wages"  (p.  130).  It  is 
needless  to  accumulate  such  depositions. 


172  THE    COLOR   LINE 

and  retail  dealing  he  may  also  do  successfully; 
he  may  teach  his  kind,  he  may  preach  and  plead 
and  prescribe  and  publish  for  them.  Superior 
artisans  will  show  themselves  here  and  there, 
and  occasionally  abilities  of  still  higher  order 
will  crop  out,  especially  among  Mulattoes.  If  they 
will,  these  can  find  ample  scope  for  their  powers 
within  the  ranks  of  their  own  people.  Spartam 
tuam  exorna  will,  in  all  such  cases,  be  the  counsel 
of  friendly  wisdom.  Vain  and  foolish  for  even 
the  superior  Negroid  to  try  to  take  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  by  force,  to  conquer  a  position  among 
the  Whites  commensurate  with  his  abilities  as  a 
Black.  Better  a  big  frog  in  a  small  puddle  than 
a  small  frog  in  a  big  puddle.  In  general,  what 
ever  tends  towards  the  sharp  demarcation  of  the 
two  races,  towards  the  accurate  delimitation  of 
their  spheres  of  activity  and  influence,  will  un 
questionably  make  for  peace,  for  prosperity,  for 
mutual  understanding,  and  for  general  content 
ment.  On  the  other  hand,  every  attempt  to  blur 
these  boundaries,  to  wipe  out  natural  distinctions, 
to  mix  immiscibles,  must  always  issue  in  confusion, 
discord,  failure,  reciprocal  injury,  and  final  ruin. 
We  think  that  universal  history  attests  the 
correctness  of  this  observation.  Wherever  border 
lines  have  been  closely  drawn  and  distinctly 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  173 

recognized,  whether  between  species  or  races, 
nations  or  tribes,  castes,  classes,  or  individ 
uals,  there  have  been  found  at  least  compara 
tive  quiet,  harmony,  mutual  regard,  and  even 
happiness.  But  ill-defined  borders  have  been 
everywhere  and  everywhen  the  fruitful  source 
of  strife,  destruction,  and  misery.  It  was  with  a 
just  feeling  for  this  great  truth  that  the  profound 
Gnostic,  Basilides,  declared  that  in  "the  resto 
ration  of  all  things,"  at  "the  consummation  of  the 
aeons,"  every  element  would  seek  its  own  place 
and  there  abide  forever,  and  not  as  if  fishes  were 
trying  to  pasture  with  sheep  upon  the  mountains. 
A  kindred  sense  of  the  fitness  of  things  is  re 
vealed  here  in  the  South  (and  also  in  the  North), 
where  one  will  often  hear  it  said  that  "I  like  a 
Negro  —  in  his  place."  This  does  not  mean,  at 
least  it  need  not  mean,  any  harshness  or  over- 
haughtiness  on  the  part  of  the  speaker.  We  have 
often  heard  it  on  the  lips  of  the  kindest-hearted, 
the  most  humane  in  their  treatment  of  the  Negro. 
It  is  a  just  recognition  of  a  patent,  unmistakable, 
and  incontrovertible  fact,  which  no  humanity 
can  amend  and  no  sophistry  can  disguise.  The 
same  feeling  is  frequently  met  with  among  sober- 
minded  Blacks,  who,  much  to  one's  surprise 
sometimes,  are  found  to  resent  the  ambitious 


174  THE   COLOR   LINE 

attempts  of  their  fellows,  generally  Mulattoes, 
to  rise  above  their  own  race  and  align  them 
selves  with  the  Whites.  We  affirm  then  that 
drawing  the  colour  line,  firm  and  fast,  between 
the  races,  first  of  all  in  social  relations,  and 
then  by  degrees  in  occupations  also,  is  a  natural 
process  and  a  rational  procedure,  which  makes 
equally  for  the  welfare  of  both. 

That  this  process  will  actually  go  on,  though 
with  many  interruptions  and  much  opposition, 
we  cannot  doubt.  The  latter  will  be  due  in  the 
main  to  aspiring  Mulattoes,  to  purblind  philan 
thropists,  and  to  designing  politicians  —  all  three 
the  real  enemies  of  the  Negro  and  the  disturbers 
of  his  peace. 

In  spite  of  them,  however,  the  process  will  go 
on,  and  we  shall  see  whether  the  Negro  be  able 
to  maintain  himself  in  the  presence  of  the  Cau 
casian,  though  in  an  inferior  place,  playing  a 
subordinate  role,  within  a  protected  but  contract 
ed  sphere  of  activity.  Certainly  not  a  brilliant 
future  that  opens  before  him,  at  the  very  best. 
Even  the  highest  success  might  seem  humble 
enough,  but  is  it  sure  that  even  such  a  lowly 
victory  awaits  him  ? 

Here,  again,  prophecy  would  seem  to  be  haz 
ardous,  but  we  cannot  fail  to  notice  and  to  record 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  175 

some  significant  tokens.  Of  these,  one  of  the  most 
notable  is  the  marked  tendency  of  the  Negroes 
to  herd  together  in  the  cities.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  problem  of  securing  labour  in  the  country 
is  becoming  increasingly  difficult.  Many  plan 
tations  have,  in  fact,  been  abandoned  for  no  other 
reason  than  that  labourers  could  not  be  found 
to  cultivate  them.  Italians  and  other  Europeans 
are  immigrating  thither,  and  the  question  is  ea 
gerly  debated  whether  they  will  fill  acceptably 
the  gap  left  by  the  departing  Negroes.  Whether 
this  tide  cityward,  which  is  actually  decimating 
some  sections  of  the  Black  Belt,  will  turn  and  roll 
back,  we  may  not  guess;  but  it  seems  unlikely. 
To  all  appearances  the  Negroes  will  stream  stead 
ily  towards  the  towns,  and  gather  more  and  more 
densely  in  certain  localities.* 

But  this  tendency  deals  them  death.  The  mor 
tality  among  the  coloured  population  of  our 
cities  is  frightful.  The  gravest  maladies  establish 
themselves  among  these  unsanitated  throngs  and 

*  "  Fully  ninety-four  per  cent  have  struggled  for  land  and  failed,  and  half 
of  them  sit  in  hopeless  serfdom.  For  these  there  is  one  other  avenue  of 
escape  towards  which  they  have  turned  in  increasing  numbers,  namely, 
migration  to  town  .  .  .  this  is  a  part  of  the  rush  to  town."  Dubois, 
The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,  p.  162.  "  The  crop-lien  system  which  is  depopu 
lating  the  fields  of  the  South  is  not  simply  the  result  of  shil'tlessness  on 
the  part  of  Negroes  "  (p.  170).  Here,  again,  evidence  may  he  supplied 
in  any  measure  desired.  From  the  census  reports  it  appears  that  in  the 
North  the  same  tendency  is  quite  as  strong,  if  not  even  stronger. 


176  THE    COLOR   LINE 

rage  with  ruinous  virulence.  In  ante-bellum  days 
pulmonary  tuberculosis  was  infrequent  among 
the  plantation  Blacks  of  the  South ;  now  it  lashes 
them  with  a  scourge  of  desolation,  and  pneu 
monia  even  more  ruthlessly.  Typhoid  fever  also 
ravages  their  ranks  with  fury.  Still  worse,  con 
tagious  diseases  are  fearfully  prevalent.  Among 
a  populace  to  which  chastity  and  continence  are 
terms  almost  unknown  and  meaningless,  these 
must  diffuse  and  propagate  themselves  like  an  epi 
demic,  they  must  lower  the  general  vitality,  and 
still  more  directly  the  virility  and  fecundity. 
Hitherto,  the  rate  of  multiplication  has  been  in 
a  measure  maintained  by  a  high  birth  rate  in  the 
face  of  a  fearful  mortality.  But  this  cannot  last. 
The  plain  indications  now  are  that  the  birth 
rate  is  falling  and  must  fall,  while  the  death 
rate  rises  with  the  steady  influx  into  the  towns, 
the  abandonment  of  the  simple  and  healthful 
modes  of  country  life  for  the  vice  and  diseases 
of  the  village.*  Even  at  best,  the  city  is  an  ulcer 
on  the  face  of  the  earth,  a  maelstrom,  a  minotaur 
devouring  the  yearly  tribute  of  the  strength  and 
beauty  of  the  land.f  But  for  the  Negro,  it  stands 
ready  with  two-handed  engine  of  death. 

*  For  a  minute  study  of  birth  and  death  rates,  see  infra,  pp.  225-49. 
f  To  be  sure,  this  charge  holds  in  only  very  modified   degree  of  the 
modern  sanitated  city. 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  177 

Moreover,  the  gloomy  hopelessness  of  the  situ 
ation  must  become  apparent  as  the  decades  glide 
by.  The  Negro  must  feel  that  competition  is 
becoming  sharper,  that  his  territory  is  becom 
ing  narrower  and  narrower,  that  twentieth-cen 
tury  citizenship  is,  like  the  Gospel  commandment, 
made  for  those  who  can  receive  it,  that  he  is  un 
equal  to  the  load  cast  upon  him,  that  he  is  sinking 
beneath  the  burden  of  an  honour  unto  which  he 
was  not  born.  Herewith  the  joyousness  of  life 
must  depart,  the  old-time  buoyancy  of  the  race 
give  place  to  a  deepening  despond.*  As  the  gen 
erations  pass  on,  the  Negro  will  be  hemmed  every 
way  within  straiter  and  straiter  limits,  his  numbers 
will  decrease,  his  digit  will  move  further  to  the 
right  in  the  great  sum  of  humanity  —  slowly, 
silently,  steadily  he  will  be  driven  to  the  wall. 
Possibly  he  may  emigrate  in  large  numbers  to 
some  tropical  clime  which  nature  has  forbidden 
to  the  Caucasian.  This  would  indeed  be  the  hap 
piest  possible  solution  for  the  South,  and  he 
would  be  a  courageous  seer  who  would  declare 

*  What  a  note  of  infinite  melancholy  sounds  through  "  The  Souls  of 
Black  Folk/'  the  finest  product  of  the  Mulatto  mind.  In  his  "The  Col 
lege-bred  Negro, "  the  same  author,  Dubois,  has  put  the  question  as  to  the 
future  of  his  race  to  hundreds  of  these  representative  Negroes  and  record 
ed  their  answers.  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  hopefulness  of  the  majority 
is  quite  artificial,  based  on  some  religious  faith  or  moral  trust,  ana  that 
the  really  weighty  answers  are  given  by  the  hopeless  minority. 


178  THE   COLOR   LINE 

that  this  century  will  not  see  a  large  exodus  of 
Negroes  from  the  Gulf  region.  But  we  do  not 
believe  that  such  emigration  will  go  northward. 
Our  Northern  friends  have  no  more  affection 
or  use  for  the  Negro  than  have  we.  They  love  to 
pet  him  and  let  their  benevolence  play  about 
him  —  this  so  long  as  they  can  patronize  him, 
can  "offer  him  financial  assistance,"  and  "stick 
a  diamond  pin  in  his  coat,"  and  lay  at  his  feet 
"the  Presidency  of  Haiti  as  soon  as  it  is  con 
quered  by  an  expedition  now  under  preparation." 
Besides,  his  vote  is  a  very  important  weight  to 
throw  into  the  scale  in  cases  of  doubtful  elections. 
But  once  let  the  Blacks  turn  their  faces  north 
ward  in  great  numbers,  let  them  begin  to  swarm 
by  myriads,  and  derange  the  labour  conditions, 
and  drag  down  the  scale  of  wages,  and  oust  the 
Whites  from  their  places  —  then  philanthropy 
will  be  thrown  to  the  winds,  and  the  arm  of  the 
government  at  Washington  will  not  be  strong 
enough  or  long  enough  to  guard  these  wards  of 
the  nation  from  violence  and  persecution  and 
outrage.* 

*  Events  in  the  North,  still  fresh  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  illustrate 
these  statements  profusely.  That  the  Negro  is  steadily  losing  ground  in 
dustrially  as  well  as  otherwise,  is  witnessed  unequivocally  in  the  most 
diverse  quarters.  Thus  Dubois,  "The  Philadelphia  Negro,"  p.  43:  "It 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  main  results  of  the  development  of  the  Phila 
delphia  Negro  since  the  war  have  on  the  whole  disappointed  his  well- 


A   DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  179 

If  the  Blacks  should  occupy  and  settle,  should 
colonize,  some  outlying  tropical  region,*  and 
should  there  start  out  on  their  own  path  of  devel 
opment,  it  is  interesting,  though  not  so  impor 
tant,  to  ask,  What  would  be  their  probable  future  ? 
We  answer,  though  we  build  no  argument  what 
ever  on  this  answer,  that  the  experiment  would 
most  likely  be  a  repetition  of  Haiti;  removed 
from  the  sustaining  atmosphere  of  European 
civilization,  the  Negro  would  most  probably  sink 
back  into  barbarism.  If  there  be  anything  in  the 
history  either  of  man  or  of  nature  that  would 
lead  us  to  anticipate  some  other  result,  we  know 
not  what  it  is. 

At  this  point  our  forecast  has  become  so  som 
bre  that  the  optimistic  reader  may  grow  im 
patient  with  such  pessimism,  and  may  at  least 
demand  some  confirmation  of  our  vaticinations. 

wishers.    .    .    .  Not  only  do  they  feel  that  there  is  a  lack  of  positive  re 
sults,  but  the  relative  advance  compared  with  the  period  just  before  the 

lal 


war  is  slow,  if  not  an  actual  retrogression;  an  abnormal  and  growing 
amount  of  crime  and  poverty  can  justly  be  charged  to  the  Negro;  he  is  not 
a  large  taxpayer,  holds  no  conspicuous  place  in  the  business  world  or  the 
world  of  letters,  and  even  as  a  workingman  seems  to  be  losing  ground"  So, 
too,  in  Chicago:  "There  are  a  few  in  the  trades,  as  carpenters,  painters, 
etc.,  but  these  are  decreasing.  .  .  .  There  is  a  large  class  of  unemployed 
Negroes  in  the  city,  numbering  several  hundreds.  Could  a  careful  census 
of  this  class  be  taken,  it  would  no  doubt  be  found  to  reach  into  thou 
sands."  Monro  N.  Work,  in  American  Journal  of  Social.,  Vol.  6,  p.  206. 
Everywhere  throughout  the  South  this  expulsive  process  has  already  pro 
ceeded  far  and  still  proceeds  apace.  In  the  foregoing,  the  italics  are  ours. 
*  The  late  Professor  E.  D.  Cope  recommended  the  deportation  of  the 
Negro. 


180  THE   COLOR   LINE 

The  fact  is  that  we  have  long  hesitated  to  make 
public  our  convictions,  since  the  role  of  Cas 
sandra  has  few  attractions,  and  it  is  only  an  after 
thought  to  print  them  in  this  volume,  though 
they  were  indicated,  many  months  ago,  in  The 
Nation  of  March  5,  1903.  However,  to  en- 
hearten  us,  within  the  last  week  we  have  lighted 
upon  the  corroborative  testimony  of  perhaps  the 
highest  authority  in  the  United  States  —  a  scholar 
whose  opportunities  for  forming  a  judgement  are 
certainly  unsurpassed,  if  indeed  equaled  —  whose 
abilities  are  not  questioned,  and  whose  freedom 
from  prejudice  is  absolute.  In  a  notable  address 
delivered  May  10,  1900,  at  the  First  Annual 
Conference  held  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Southern  Society  for  the  promo 
tion  of  the  study  of  race  conditions  and  problems 
in  the  South,  Professor  W.  F.  Willcox,  of  Cornell 
University,  Chief  Statistician  of  the  United  States 
Census  Office  at  Washington,  a  "New  Eng- 
lander  by  birth  and  ancestry,"  declared  that  he 
could  "not  read  the  evidence  as  Dr.  Curry  appar 
ently  does,"  "Races,  like  nations,  exist  to  serve 
humanity,  and  come  and  go  in  the  long  run 
according  as  they  meet  or  fail  to  meet  this  test." 
"These  diverse  races  of  men  may  be  roughly 
graded  according  to  their  value  to  humanity  and 


A    DIP   INTO   THE    FUTURE  181 

their  ability  to  improve.  In  any  effort  so  to 
arrange  them,  the  least  serviceable  and  least  pro 
gressive  people  are  found  to  be  those  whose 
habitat  secured  the  greatest  isolation,  freedom 
from  competition  and  lack  of  incentive  to  im 
provement.  Such  peoples  were  found  especially 
in  the  islands  of  the  ocean,  in  the  continent  of 
Australia,  in  America,  and  in  Africa."  Never 
theless,  Africa  seems  to  have  been  the  scene  of 
most  extraordinary  mingling  of  bloods  —  a  battle 
ground  of  widely  diverse  tribes  ;*  in  spite  of  this 
the  African  still  belongs  to  "the  least  serviceable 
and  least  progressive  people."  "Those  two  back 
ward  races,  viz.,  the  Negro  and  the  Malay." 
"When  higher  and  lower  races  meet  and  inter 
penetrate,  only  two  permanent  solutions  have  thus 
far  been  recorded  in  history.  Either  the  lower 
race  has  disappeared,  or  the  two  have  fused,  and 
in  the  case  of  especial  moment  to  us  all,  and  to  the 
future  of  this  country,  I  cannot  believe  that  look- 

*  Witness  Schweinf urth,  one  of  the  carefulest  observers  and  highest  au 
thorities  :  "  If  we  could  at  once  grasp  and  set  before  our  minds  facts  that 
are  known  (whether  as  regards  language,  race,  culture,  history,  or  devel 
opment)  of  that  vast  region  of  the  world  which  is  comprehended  in  the 
name  of  Africa,  we  should  have  before  us  the  witness  of  an  intermingling 
of  races  which  is  beyond  all  precedent,  And  yet,  bewildering  as  the  pros 
pect  would  appear,  it  remains  a  fact  not  to  be  gainsaid,  that  it  is  impos 
sible  for  any  one  to  survey  the  country  as  a  whole  without  perceiving  that, 
high  above  the  multiplication  of  individual  differences,  there  is  throned 
a  principle  of  unity  (he  refers  to  the  autochthonous  black  stock),  which- 
embraces  well-nigh  all  the  population"  (Heart  of  Africa,  Vol.  I.,  p.  313). 


182  THE   COLOR   LINE 

ing  down  through  the  centuries  any  other  per 
manent  solution  than  one  of  these  two  can  be 
found.  During  the  period  of  slavery  the  Negro 
race  in  the  United  States  was  protected  from 
competition  with  the  Whites,  somewhat  as  it 
would  have  been  by  local  isolation,  or  somewhat 
as  domesticated  animals  are  protected  from  the 
dangers  nature  throws  about  them.  Only  since 
emancipation  has  genuine  competition  between 
the  races  in  this  country  existed,  and  during  the 
early  years  after  the  Civil  War  the  conditions 
were  such  as  to  favor  the  Negro  race  and  to 
handicap  the  whites."  "Notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  the  Negroes  were  aided  and  the  whites 
downcast  during  these  dark  years,  the  white 
population  has  grown  with  great  and  increasing 
rapidity."  "The  conditions  to  which  the  white 
race  is  subject  will  probably  never  again  be  so 
unfortunate,  the  conditions  to  which  the  Negro 
race  is  subject  will  not  soon,  if  ever,  be  so  fa 
vorable  as  during  the  years  after  the  Civil  War. 
Yet  notice  some  of  the  changes  that  have  occurred 
during  the  thirty  years  from  1860  to  1890,  brief 
span  as  this  is  in  the  life  of  a  race. 

"The  black  belt  may  be  defined  as  those  coun 
ties  in  which  the  Negro  population  outnumbered 
the  white.  In  Maryland  in  1860  there  were  five 


A   DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  183 

such  counties,  and  in  1890  only  two.  In  Virginia 
there  were  forty-three  and  in  1890  only  thirty- 
three.  In  North  Carolina  there  were  nineteen  and 
in  1890  only  sixteen.  The  group  of  adjoining 
counties  in  southeastern  Maryland,  eastern  Vir 
ginia  and  northeast  North  Carolina,  which 
formed  the  most  northerly  outpost  of  the  black 
belt  in  1860,  has  decreased  in  thirty  years  from 
sixty-two  counties  to  forty-six,  or  almost  exactly 
one-fourth.  In  1860  Kentucky  had  one  county  be 
longing  to  the  black  belt,  while  in  1890  it  had 
none.  In  1860  northern  Alabama  had  two  coun 
ties  belonging  to  the  black  belt,  but  in  1890  both 
of  these  had  disappeared  from  the  map.  In  the 
cotton-growing  regions  of  the  more  southerly 
States  there  has  been  an  increase  of  the  counties 
belonging  to  the  black  belt,  but  not  enough  entirely 
to  offset  these  changes.  It  seems  that  locally  the 
Negroes  have  begun  to  yield  ground  to  the  whites 
in  the  regions  most  favorable  to  the  latter,  and 
that  such  a  change  is  likely  to  continue. 

"  I  have  no  time  to  go  into  the  complex  statis 
tical  evidence  bearing  upon  the  vitality  of  the 
Negro  race,  and  its  power  to  meet  successfully 
the  increasing  industrial  competition,  to  which 
it  must  be  exposed,  as  these  States  fill  with  people, 
as  cities  spring  up  and  prosper,  and  as  industry, 


184  THE   COLOR   LINE 

trade  and  agriculture  become  diversified  and 
more  complex.  The  balance  of  the  evidence,  how 
ever,  seems  to  me  to  indicate  for  the  future  a 
continuance  of  changes  already  begun,  viz.,  a 
decrease  in  the  Negro  birth-rate  decidedly  more 
rapid  than  the  actual  present  or  probable  future 
decrease  in  the  death-rate.  This  would  result 
obviously  in  a  slackening  rate  of  increase,  and 
then  in  a  stationary  condition,  followed  by  slow 
numerical  retrogression.  If  this  anticipation 
should  be  realized,  the  Negroes  will  continue 
to  become,  as  they  are  now  becoming,  a  steadily 
smaller  proportion  of  the  population. 

"  The  final  outcome,  though  its  realization  may 
be  postponed  for  centuries,  will  be,  I  believe, 
that  the  race  will  follow  the  fate  of  the  Indians, 
that  the  great  majority  will  disappear  before  the 
whites,  and  that  the  remnant  found  capable  of 
elevation  to  the  level  of  the  white  man's  civil 
ization  will  ultimately  be  merged  and  lost  in  the 
lower  classes  of  the  whites,  leaving  almost  no 
trace  to  mark  their  former  existence. 

"  Where  such  a  lower  people  has  disappeared, 
the  causes  of  their  death  have  been  mainly  dis 
ease,  vice  and  profound  discouragement.  It  seems 
to  me  clear  that  each  one  of  these  causes  is  affect 
ing  the  Negro  race  far  more  deeply  and  unfa- 


A    DIP   INTO   THE    FUTURE  185 

vorably  at  the  present  time  than  it  was  at  the 
date  of  their  emancipation.  The  medical  evi 
dence  available  points  to  the  conclusion  that  they 
are  more  than  ever  afflicted  with  the  scourges 
of  disease,  such  as  typhoid  fever  and  consump 
tion,  and  with  the  physical  ills  entailed  by  sexual 
vice.  I  have  argued  elsewhere  to  show  that  both 
in  the  North  and  in  the  South  crime  among  the 
Negroes  is  rapidly  increasing.  Whether  the  race 
as  a  whole  is  as  happy,  as  joyous,  as  confident 
of  the  future,  or  thoughtless  of  it,  as  it  was  be 
fore  the  war,  you,  my  hearers,  know  far  better 
than  I.  I  can  only  say  that  in  my  studies  I  have 
found  not  one  expression  of  dissent  from  the 
opinion  that  the  joyous  buoyancy  of  the  race  is 
passing  away;  that  they  feel  upon  them  a  burden 
of  responsibility  to  which  they  are  unequal;  that 
the  lower  classes  of  Negroes  are  resentful,  and 
that  the  better  classes  [are]  not  certain  or  san 
guine  of  the  outcome.  If  this  judgment  be  true, 
I  can  only  say  that  it  is  perhaps  the  most  fatal 
source  of  race  as  of  national  decay  and  death." 
The  foregoing  excerpts  seem  to  us  to  be  the 
weightiest  words  of  authority  on  this  subject  that 
have  fallen  under  our  notice.  They  deserve  to  be 
stamped  in  letters  of  gold  on  the  walls  of  the 
Public  Library  in  Boston  and  over  the  pulpit  of 


186  THE    COLOR   LINE 

Plymouth  Church  in  Brooklyn,  on  the  lintels 
of  the  White  House,  and  on  the  title-page  of  all 
future  editions  of  The  Independent  and  The  Na 
tion.  Of  course,  the  superior  culture  and  intelli 
gence  of  our  opponents  may  easily  snuff  out  all 
our  arguments  with  a  sneer  at  our  straitened 
and  archaic  provincialism ;  —  so  be  it :  we  deserve 
no  better  fate,  having  been  born  South  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line,  most  imprudently.  But  what, 
pray,  if  they  deign  to  flutter  through  this  volume, 
what  will  they  do  with  this  utterance  of  the  Puri 
tan  pur  sang,  the  Chief  Statistician  ?  Can  they 
afford  to  dismiss  it  as  that  of  "  another  good  man 
gone  wrong." 

If  then  the  Afro-American  race  stands  even 
now  at  the  entrance  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow 
of  Death,  what  shall  we  say,  what  shall  we  do  ? 
Shall  we  weep  and  wail  and  gnash  our  teeth  ? 
Shall  we  lift  up  the  trump  of  indignation  against 
such  red-handed  iniquity?  Shall  we  cry  out  to 
Heaven  and  to  Congress  against  the  crime  of  the 
centuries  ?  We  think  that  a  much  calmer  and 
milder  mood  may  well  become  us  before  such  a 
thanatopsis.  Why  should  the  spectacle  of  a  racial 
diminuendo  so  arouse  or  revolt  us  ?  Surely 
it  is  something  neither  unique  nor  uncommon. 
All  that  breathe  will  share  their  destiny.  It  is 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  187 

appointed  unto  men  once  to  die.  If  it  were  the 
highest  form  of  human  life,  we  might  be  con 
cerned  or  even  confounded.  But  such  it  is  not;  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  one  of  the  very  lowest,  that  has 
hitherto  enacted  and  promises  hereafter  to  enact 
only  unhistorical  history.  "  The  old  order  chang- 
eth,  yielding  place  to  new."  The  recession, 
the  evanescence,  of  the  Negro  before  the  Cau 
casian  is  only  one  example  among  millions  of 
the  process  of  nature.  The  ministry  of  death  is 
not  maleficent;  says  the  Cabbala,  "The  Lord 
said  unto  the  Angel  of  Death,  Behold  I  have 
made  thee  cosmocrator."  In  the  upward  mount 
ing  of  the  forms  of  life,  there  are  no  other  step 
ping-stones  than  their  own  dead  selves.  The 
:vision,  then,  of  a  race  vanishing  before  its  supe 
rior  is  not  at  all  dispiriting,  but  inspiring  rather. 
It  is  but  a  part  of  the  increasing  purpose  of  the 
ages,  a  forward  creeping  of  the  eternal  dawn. 

The  doom  that  awaits  the  Negro  has  been 
prepared  in  like  measure  for  all  inferior  races. 
Except  where  they  are  bulwarked  by  the  climate, 
they  must  be  drowned  by  the  mounting  wave 
of  their  superior  rivals.  To  the  clear,  cold  eye  of 
science,  the  plight  of  these  backward  peoples 
appears  practically  hopeless.  They  have  neither 
part  nor  parcel  in  the  future  history  of  man; 


188  THE   COLOR   LINE 

they  are  rejected  as  dross  from  its  thrice-heated 
furnace. 

This  may  sound  harsh  and  unfeeling,  but  in 
reality  it  is  not  so.  We  do  not  mean  that  the  in 
ferior  should  be  treated  unjustly,  unkindly,  in 
humanly.  Far  from  it.  Let  equity  be  dealt  with 
an  even  hand.  We  have  never  given  either  voice 
or  vote  for  any  form  of  injustice,  however  spe 
cious,  or  plausible,  or  grandfatherly.  The  pro 
cesses  we  have  in  view  lie  deeper  than  any  legis 
lation;  they  are  inwoven  in  the  living  garment 
of  the  Godhead. 

But  may  we  not  check  or  arrest  them  ?  May 
not  the  strong  Caucasian  lend  a  helping  hand  to 
his  weaker  African  brother  and  lift  him  up,  and 
the  two  walk  along  hand  in  hand  through  the 
centuries?  This  is  a  very  idyllic  picture.  "Be 
hold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  for  brethren  to 
dwell  together  in  unity."  But  a  moment's  re 
flection  must  show  how  inadequate  and  unreal 
this  dew  of  Hermon.  It  is  not  hard  for  altruism 
to  run  suicidally  mad,  if  one  lets  go  the  check- 
rein  of  egoism.  The  first  and  highest  and  un- 
escapable  duty  of  a  race  is  to  its  self  —  to  realize 
its  own  personality,  to  put  forth  all  its  powers 
and  potencies,  to  unfold  the  full  flower  of  its  own 
being.  It  must  neither  be  unjust  nor  ungenerous 


A    DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  189 

in  its  treatment  of  others,  but  neither  must  it  at 
tempt  self-immolation  —  especially,  as  that  sacri 
fice  would  be  idle  and  unanswered.  The  most, 
the  best  that  one  race  can  effect  for  another  is 
merely  some  extra-organic  amelioration  of  con 
dition.  The  organic  destiny  of  that  other,  written 
in  blood  and  bone  and  cell  and  plasma,  lies  be 
yond  the  reach  of  the  helping  hand.  We  must 
dismiss,  then,  this  vision  of  a  higher  race  stoop 
ing  down  with  arms  of  love  and  lifting  up  the 
lower  to  its  altitude,  as  merely  a  pious  imagi 
nation.  The  higher  race  may  indeed  stoop  down; 
it  has  often  done  so;  but  never  to  rise  again;  in 
stantly  there  falls  upon  it  the  Davidic  curse: 
"Bow  down  their  back  alway." 
:  The  fate  that  awaits  the  backward  race  in  the 
presence  of  the  advanced  should  appear  more 
vividly,  one  would  think,  to  no  other  eyes  than 
to  those  of  New  England.  "Across  the  ocean 
came  a  pilgrim  bark,  bearing  the  seeds  of  life 
and  of  death.  The  former  were  sown  for  you; 
the  latter  sprang  up  in  the  path  of  the  simple 
native."  Nor  in  this  process  of  extermination, 
in  these  "centuries  of  dishonour,"  has  it  really 
been  a  question  of  fairness  or  unfairness,  of 
righteousness  or  unrighteousness.  No  kind  or 
degree  of  gentleness  or  justice  could  have  long 


190  THE    COLOR   LINE 

delayed  the  departure  of  the  Indian.  When 
North-Europeans  landed  on  his  shores,  for  him 
the  clock  of  destiny  had  struck.  While  we  may 
properly  applaud  or  condemn  individual  and 
communal  acts  by  standards  of  individual  or 
communal  ethics,  it  is  not  possible  to  judge  the 
race  by  any  such  feeble  sense.  Nature  is  neither 
moral  nor  immoral,  but  supermoral.  Her  seonian 
processes  are  not  to  be  measured  by  our  rules 
nor  defined  by  our  categories;  they  tower  above 
good  and  bad;  they  reach  beyond  right  and 
wrong.  Should  Roman  legions  have  conquered 
Greece  and  girdled  the  Mediterranean  with  her 
civilization  ?  Ought  Babylonian  empire  to  have 
lifted  up  its  lion  wings  over  Western  Asia?  We 
perceive  at  once  the  emptiness  of  such  questions. 
But  even  if  it  were  possible  for  us  to  turn  back 
the  tide  of  time,  to  stay  or  slacken  the  rolling  of 
the  wheel  of  birth,  would  it  be  well  or  wise  to 
do  so  ?  We  venture  to  question  it  most  seriously. 
There  is  a  personal  and  even  a  social  morality 
that  may  easily  become  racially  immoral.  There 
are  diseases  whose  evolutionary  function  is  to 
weed  out  the  weak,  and  so  preserve  the  future 
for  the  strong.  The  sufferers  cannot  be  treated 
with  too  careful  attention,  too  loving  gentleness, 
too  tender  sympathy.  It  is  the  glory  of  our  hu- 


A   DIP   INTO   THE   FUTURE  191 

manity  to  cherish  these  frail  flowers,  to  water 
them  with  dew,  to  shield  them  from  the  sun,  and 
not  to  suffer  even  the  winds  of  summer  to  visit 
them  too  roughly.  But  not  to  gather  from  them 
the  seed  for  generations  to  come!  Let  theirs  be 
the  present,  but  not  the  future.  He  who  should 
discover  some  serum  and  apply  it  greatly  to 
prolong  their  lives  and  give  them  equal  chance 
with  the  vigorous  in  the  matter  of  offspring, 
whatever  thanks  he  might  win  from  individuals 
or  the  community,  would  deserve  and  receive 
the  execration  of  his  race  as  its  deadliest  and 
most  insidious  foe.  So,  too,  we  hold  it  to  be  certain 
that  all  forms  of  humanitarianism  that  tend 
give  the  organically  inferior  an  equal  chance 
with  the  superior  in  the  propagation  of  the 
species,  are  radically  mistaken;  to  the  individual 
and  to  society  they  would  sacrifice  the  race. 
Their  error  may  be  very  amiable,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  mortal.  The  hope  of  humanity  lies  not 
in  strengthening  the  weak,  but  in  perfecting  the 
strong. 

Herewith,  then,  we  close  this  discussion.  The 
mistake  of  our  opponents  is  here  exposed  in 
its  deepest  root,  its  inmost  core.  It  is  seen  to  be 
a  mistake  in  philosophy,  in  cosmology,  in  the 
scientific  interpretation  of  the  process  of  nature. 


192  THE   COLOR   LINE 

But  what  a  weird  light  is  now  cast  upon  the  War 
between  the  States,  its  cause,  and  its  ultimate 
result!  Aside  from  questions  of  political  theory, 
the  North  sought  to  free  the  Negro,  the  South 
to  hold  him  in  bondage.  As  a  slave  he  had  led  a 
protected,  indeed  a  hothouse,  existence  and  had 
flourished  marvellously.  His  high-hearted  cham 
pions  shed  torrents  of  blood  and  treasure  to  shat 
ter  the  walls  of  his  prison-house,  to  dispel  the 
pent-up,  stifling  gloom  of  his  dungeon,  and  to 
pour  in  upon  him  the  free  air  and  light  of 
heaven.  But  the  sun  of  liberty  is  no  sooner  arisen 
with  burning  breath  than,  lo!  smitten  by  the 
breeze  and  the  beam,  he  withers  and  dies ! 


CHAPTER  SIX 

THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS 

Of  all  these  things  the  judge  is  Time 

ARISTOTLE 

IN  the  foregoing  chapters  it  is  only  by  way  of 
exception  that  there  has  been  made  any  formal 
use  of  statistical  data,  or  any  reference  to  scientific 
authorities;  —  in  fact,  there  has  been  a  studied 
avoidance  of  the  sympathetic  literature  of  the 
subject.  But  it  seems  wise  and,  above  all,  just  to 
the  reader,  to  guard  well  every  salient  position, 
to  throw  round  every  argumentative  assertion  a 
bulwark  of  mathematical  evidence  —  a  task  that 
presents  little  difficulty,  since  in  general  the  facts 
in  the  case  are  well  ascertained  and  the  testimony 
unanimous.  At  only  a  few  points,  and  those  of 
rather  minor  importance,  do  the  depositions  go 
wide  apart.  In  casting  up  these  circumvallations, 
we  shall  be  at  pains  to  cite  only  witnesses  against 
whom  no  exceptions  can  lie;  many  very  valuable 


194  THE    COLOR    LINE 

ones  shall  be  excluded,  merely  for  geographical 
reasons;  we  do  not  ask  the  reader  to  heed  even 
a  scientific  word  that  might  be  tinged  with  preju 
dice. 

Next  to  the  United  States  Census  Reports, 
which  must  of  course  be  our  main  source,  we 
shall  use,  in  discussing  anthropometry,  the  great 
work  of  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  F.  S.  S.,  statisti 
cian  to  the  Prudential  Insurance  Company  of 
America,  entitled  "Race  Traits  and  Ten 
dencies  of  the  American  Negro,"  published 
as  Vol.  XI.,  Nos.  1,  2,  and  3,  of  the  publica 
tions  of  the  American  Economic  Association, 
by  the  Macmillan  Company,  August,  1896,- 
the  result  of  ten  years'  careful  investiga 
tion  —  a  book  almost  beyond  praise.  Among 
his  more  recent  supplementary  studies  may  be 
mentioned  his  "Race  and  Mortality,"  October, 
1902. 

The  author  is  a  German  and  without  race  pre 
judice.  For  him  the  problem  of  race  pathology 
exists  as  a  purely  practical  one:  At  what  rates 
can  the  Negro  be  insured  ?  No  emotion  can  enter 
here;  it  is  a  mere  question  of  dollars  and  cents, 
and  for  insurance  companies  a  vital  one.  To 
our  opponents,  his  judgements  may  sometimes 
sound  harsh;  but  they  are  scarcely  harsher  than 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  195 

the  facts,  which  he  seldom  forces,  but  interprets 
fairly.  His  conclusions  have,  of  course,  been 
passionately  assailed,  as  by  Professor  Kelly 
Miller;  but  in  no  important  particulars  have 
they  been  seriously  shaken. 

In  the  following  statistical  tables,  we  shall  fre 
quently  use  the  myriad  as  the  unit.  Thereby  the 
data  are  made  easier  to  understand  and  to  re 
member;  there  is  a  great  economy  of  space  and 
of  attention,  and  no  appreciable  sacrifice  of 
accuracy.  For  in  case  of  such  immense  numbers 
it  is  idle  to  hope  for  correctness  in  the  fourth 
figure;  errors  will  almost  surely  reach  up  into  the 
thousands,  if  not  above.  Besides,  we  shall  use 
these  data  for  purely  argumentative  purposes, 
and  no  argument  is  in  the  least  affected  by  a 
change  in  the  thousands.  Thus,  the  population 
of  New  Orleans  is  given  at  287,104.  No  one  can 
deny  that  it  may  have  been  nearer  286,000  or 
288,000.  We  shall  indicate  it  by  twenty-nine 
(myriads),  by  which  we  mean  merely  that  it  is 
between  285,000  and  295,000.  So,  when  we 
speak  of  a  mortality  of  234,  we  mean  234  yearly 
per  myriad.  So  we  shall  put  a  recent  death-rate 
of  Chicago  at  145  (per  10,000)  rather  than  at 
14.49  (per  1,000).  The  last  digit  can  lay  no 
claim  to  correctness. 


196  THE    COLOR   LINE 


INCREASE   OF  THE   NEGRO   POPULATION 

The  grand  totals  of  the  population  in  the 
Continental  United  States,  as  given  by  the  census 
reports,  are: 


W. 

N. 

W. 

N. 

W. 

N. 

1900 

6,681 

883 

(Gains, 

per 

1000) 

1,171 

135 

212 

180 

1890 

5,510 

749 

1,170 

91 

267 

138 

1880 

4,340 

658 

981 

170 

292 

349 

1870 

3,359 

488 

667 

44 

248 

99 

1860 

2,692 

444 

737 

80 

377 

221 

1850 

1,955 

364 

It  needs  no  ghost  from  the  tomb  to  tell  us  that 
some  of  these  census  returns  are  wrong,  and 
widely  wrong.  An  increase  of  221  per  thousand 
during  a  decade  (1850-60)  of  universal  and  ex 
traordinary  prosperity,  under  singularly  favour 
able  conditions,  seems  every  way  likely  and  calls 
for  no  remark.  But  the  following  decade  (1860-70), 
while  it  wrought  ruin  upon  the  Whites,  brought 
freedom  to  the  Blacks  and  in  no  way  worked 
them  any  hardship.  That  their  rate  of  increase 
should  have  fallen  off  from  221  to  ninety-nine 
seems,  then,  quite  incredible.  Again,  the  next  dec 
ade  (1870-80)  marked  the  end  of  the  riot  of  Af- 


THE    ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  197 

ricanism  in  the  South,  and  its  second  half  saw 
white  supremacy  restored  and  the  Blacks  for 
cibly  repressed.  On  the  whole,  then,  it  could 
hardly  have  been  so  favourable  to  the  Negroes 
as  the  preceding,  and  yet  their  numbers  leap  up 
nearly  two  millions,  at  the  astounding  rate  of  349 
per  thousand.  Their  conditions  were  certainly  no 
worse  during  the  next  decade  (1880-90),  yet  they 
grow  only  half  as  much,  and  at  a  rate  little  over 
one-third  as  fast — only  138  per  thousand.  There 
is  no  visible  sign  of  improvement  in  conditions 
during  the  next  decade,  yet  they  multiply  meas 
urably  faster  —  at  the  rate  of  180  per  thousand. 
When  the  results  for  1880  were  announced,  it  was 
felt  that  the  game  was  lost  for  the  white  man. 
Accordingly,  in  1883,  Professor  C.  A.  Gardiner,  of 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  could  forecast  that  in  thirty 
years  the  Southern  Negro  would  outstrip  the 
Southern  White  in  wealth,  intelligence,  and 
numbers,  and  within  a  century  would  absorb 
that  White  completely!  —  a  prediction  only  less 
buoyant  and  highly  coloured  than  Gen.  Pope's 
of  July  14,  1867,  that  "  five  years  will  have  trans 
ferred  intelligence  and  education,  so  far  as  the 
masses  are  concerned,  to  the  colored  people  of 
this  district"  (Alabama,  Georgia,  Florida).  At 
such  a  rate  the  Negroes  in  1900  would  have  num- 


198  THE    COLOR    LINE 

bered  about  fourteen  millions,  and  in  1910  about 
twenty  millions,  in  1920  nearly  thirty  millions;  in 
1950  they  would  have  surpassed  eighty  millions, 
the  present  population  of  our  Union,  and  in  1990 
they  would  have  reached  320  millions.  So  that  the 
practically  complete  Africanization  of  the  United 
States  would  be  only  a  question  of  this  century. 
The  census  of  1890  showed  an  immense  falling 
off  in  this  rate  (from  349  to  138)  and  so  allayed 
such  fears.  The  last  census  shows,  apparently,  a 
slight  rise  in  the  Negro  increase  (from^!38  to  180) 
—  which,  however,  remains  notably  behind  that 
of  the  Whites  (212),  by  about  15  per  cent. 

However,  since  these  returns  involve  manifest 
absurdities,  it  is  hard  to  ground  any  argument 
upon  them.  Presumably,  the  last  census  is  more 
nearly  correct.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  the 
census  of  1870  was  grossly  defective.  In  our 
judgement,  both  those  of  1880  and  especially  of 
1890  were  far  below  the  mark;  but  it  would  be 
hard  to  prove  this  rigorously.  It  seems  that  the 
rate  from  1850  to  1860  is,  on  its  face,  the  most  rea 
sonable.  As  the  Negroes  were  then  slaves,  their 
numbers  were  very  probably  returned  correctly 
by  the  owners.  As  there  was  no  motive  against 
and  every  motive  for  their  rapid  multiplication, 
and  as  their  death  rate  was  certainly  much  lower 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  199 

than  after  emancipation,  it  seems  certain  that 
221  per  thousand  (say  22  per  cent.)  represents 
their  maximum  natural  increase  per  decade.  This 
would  have  given  about  542  myriads  for  1870, 
about  661  for  1880,  about  806  for  1890,  about 
980  for  1900.  This  would  indicate,  then,  that 
the  census  of  1880  is  also  nearly  correct,  while 
that  of  1870  is  most  sadly  defective,  and  that 
of  1890  seriously  so.  Still,  this  latter  can  hardly 
have  erred  by  fifty  myriads  —  perhaps  by  twenty 
or  thirty;  so  that  the  number  in  1890  should 
possibly  be  770  myriads.  In  that  case,  the  num 
bers  since  1850  would  be  given,  nearly  enough 
for  memory,  by  the  hundred  thousand,  thus : 

I860  1870         1880         1890      1900 

,44  55  66  77  88,  instead  of 

44  49  66  75  88 

Of  course,  these  numbers  are  not  exact;  but 
they  are,  on  the  average,  more  nearly  so  than  those 
of  the  census  reports  given  in  the  line  below, 
which  disprove  themselves. 

At  any  rate,  the  Negro  numbers  have  been 
nearly  doubled  in  forty  years.  This  is  an  average 
rate  of  almost  exactly  20  per  cent,  per  decade. 
Since  the  earlier  rate  was  certainly  more  than 
twenty,  the  latter  must  have  been  certainly  less; 
in  fact,  even  according  to  the  census,  there  is  a 


200  THE    COLOR    LINE 

falling  off  from  221  to  180,  and  this  latter  figure 
should  probably  be  reduced  to  160.  It  must  be 
reduced,  unless  the  census  of  1890  was  as  perfect 
as  that  of  1900,  which  is  most  unlikely.  While  we 
consider  positively  necessary  some  such  amend 
ment  of  the  census  returns  as  we  have  suggested, 
yet  we  ground  no  argument  thereon;  we  rest  on 
the  certainty  that  the  rate  of  increase  of  the  Negro 
has  fallen  off  at  least  16  per  cent,  since  the  days 
of  his  slavery.  His  absolute  increase  has  been 
about  maintained,  so  that  the  next  census 
(1910)  will  give  him,  perhaps,  slightly  under  ten 
millions. 

Meantime  the  total  white  population  has  ad 
vanced  from  1,955  to  6,681  myriads;  or,  since 
1860,  from  2,692  to  6,681  —  not  quite  two  and  one- 
half  times.  But  we  must  remember  the  desolat 
ing  war  that  ravaged  the  North,  and  particularly 
the  South,  of  its  Caucasian  bloom  for  four  years, 
and  left  the  latter  utterly  prostrate.  This  is  shown 
in  the  fearful  descent  in  gain  from  377  to  248. 
The  gain  in  that  decade  should  have  been  about 
900  instead  of  667,  which  would  have  given  the 
Whites  about  8,100  myriads  in  1900  —  almost  ex 
actly  tripling  the  return  of  1860.  By  natural 
increase,  then,  the  white  population  about 
triples  itself  in  forty  years,  while  the  black 


THE   ARGUMENT    FROM    NUMBERS  201 

about  doubles.  Hence,  the  latter  must  form  an 
ever-diminishing  fraction  of  the  whole  popu 
lation.  In  fact,  the  number  of  Negroes  per 
thousand  of  the  whole  population,  since  1790, 
is  as  follows: 

1790   1800   1810   1820   1830   1840   1850   1860   1870   1880   1890   1900 

193  189  190  184  182  168  157  141  127  131  119  116 

We  have  seen  that  the  estimate  for  1870  is  cer 
tainly  much  too  low,  as  also  extremely  probably 
that  for  1890.  In  any  case,  it  is  hereby  proved  that 
the  black  is  rapidly  falling  in  ratio  to  the  white 
population.  Such  a  descent,  pursued  for  a  few 
centuries,  would  bring  it  to  comparative  insignifi 
cance. 

To  be  sure,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
White  increase  is  due  largely  to  immigration.  But 
there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  this  immigration 
should  not  be  continued  indefinitely;  at  present 
it  is  particularly  heavy  and  will  weigh  very  per 
ceptibly  in  the  census  of  1910. 

Again,  it  must  not  be  disguised  that  the  birth 
rate  among  the  older  New  England  stock  of  na 
tive  white  Americans  has  fallen  lamentably  low  — 
even  beneath  the  point  of  bare  race  maintenance. 
A  thousand  such  couples  rear  only  about  950 
couples.  This  race  decay  seems,  surely,  the  most 
alarming  symptom  in  our  national  life  —  a  tend- 


202  THE   COLOR   LINE 

ency  which  it  seems  exceedingly  hard  to  combat. 
However,  there  are  yet  vigorous  and  prolific  Cau 
casian  tribes  in  great  abundance  on  the  face  of  the 
earth;  and  if  the  native  white  American  prefers 
to  die  out,  why,  let  him  die  —  no  one  can  help  it. 
The  white  foreigner  will  certainly  step  in  and  fill 
his  place  more  virilely,  if  not  more  worthily. 
There  is  nothing,  then,  in  this  phenomenon,  hu 
miliating  though  it  is,  to  shake  the  conclusions 
already  stated. 

But  an  even  more  interesting  matter  than  the 
relation  of  the  Negro  to  the  Union  at  large  is  his 
relation  to  special  sections.  The  grand  divisions 
in  the  census  reports  are  North  Atlantic,  South 
Atlantic,  North  Central,  South  Central,  and 
Western.  In  only  two  of  these,  the  South  Atlantic 
and  the  South  Central,  is  the  Negro  really  a  prob 
lem.  In  the  others,  he  is  a  vanishing  quantity. 
Thus,  in  the  North  Atlantic  and  the  North 
Central,  his  myriads  are  only : 

1850     1860     1870     1880     1890     1900 

North  Atlantic          15          16          18  23          27          39 

North  Central  14          18          27          39          43          50 

This  increase  has  been  rapid  —  much  more 
rapid  than  elsewhere;  but  he  remains,  and  must 
always  remain,  insignificant.  The  increase  has 
been  due  to  immigration,  for  it  is  conceded  that 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  203 

his  natural  rate  of  increase  in  the  North  will  not 
even  maintain  his  numbers.  Left  to  himself  there, 
he  would  certainly  die  out.  This  immigration  will 
certainly  continue  and  will  actually  contribute 
to  the  destruction  of  the  race,  as  it  were  by 
steadily  lopping  off  the  extreme  boughs  of  the  tree. 
Of  the  West,  nothing  need  be  said.  For  the 
South  Atlantic  and  South  Central,  the  record  is  as 
follows  : 


1850 

I860 

1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

S.  A.,  W. 

282 

331 

364 

466 

560 

671 

N. 

186 

206 

222 

294 

326 

373 

S.  C.,  W. 

281 

373 

423 

590 

749 

982 

N. 

149 

204 

220* 

301 

350f 

419 

*  More  probably  260. 
t  More  probably  865. 


Here  we  perceive,  at  once,  that  the  situation  on 
the  Atlantic  is  unequivocal.  The  Black  tinge  is 
fading  away;  that  population  has  exactly  doubled 
itself  only  in  fifty  years,  while  in  the  South  Cen 
tral  it  has  doubled  in  forty  years.  Compare  now 
the  White  record  in  the  same  (South  Atlantic)  re 
gions.  Owing  to  the  Civil  War,  the  growth  during 
the  decade  1860-70  was  under  thirty-five  myriads 
—  less  than  half  of  the  normal  growth  ;  neverthe 
less,  the  White  population  has  more  than  doubled 
itself  in  thirty-five  years,  from  1865  to  1900.  In 
1850  there  were  397  Blacks  to  every  thousand,  in 


204  THE    COLOR   LINE 

1900  only  356.  The  next  half  century  will  see  a 
still  further  reduction.  The  White  increase,  in  the 
last  decade,  was  20  per  cent ;  the  Black  was  only  14. 

Coming  to  the  South  Central,  we  find  the  case 
equally  clear.  Here  again,  the  civil  strife  amerced 
the  Whites  of  at  least  half  a  decade;  the  increase 
from  1860  to  1870  was  only  fifty  myriads,  whereas 
it  should  have  been  over  100,  since  is  was  ninety- 
two  from  1850  to  1860.  Nevertheless,  we  find  that 
the  White  number  has  doubled  in  twenty-five 
years  (from  1875  to  1900),  but  the  black  in  forty 
(from  1860  to  1900).  From  1850  to  1860  the  Black 
gain  was  over  40  per  cent,  the  White  was  under 
34  per  cent;  but,  for  the  last  decade  (1890 
to  1900),  the  Black  gain  was  20  per  cent,  the 
White  about  30  per  cent.  In  the  whole  half  cen 
tury,  the  Blacks  have  gained  181  per  cent;  but 
the  Whites,  in  spite  of  their  numerous  losses  in 
four  years'  war,  have  gained  over  249  per  cent. 
In  1850,  of  every  thousand,  347  were  Black;  but, 
in  1900,  only  299. 

It  is  demonstrated,  then,  that  in  these  two  focal 
regions  of  African  strength  not  only  is  that 
strength  relatively  decreasing,  but  it  is  decreasing 
faster  and  faster.  The  hour  cometh  when  neither 
by  the  ocean  nor  by  the  gulf  will  it  signify  more 
than  it  does  now  in  Philadelphia  or  New  York. 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  205 

If  now  we  turn  to  the  statistics  of  the  states,  we 
shall,  of  course,  find  this  general  average  result 
unevenly  distributed.  Only  the  states  included 
in  the  following  table  can  have  any  interest  for  us : 

1850     1860     1870     1880     1890     1900 

A1  ,  /  W.  43          53          52          66          83        100 

Alabama \N.  35  44  48  60  69  83 

A^nsas {  £  16          32          36          59          82          94 

Dist.of  Columbia!  %          JJ         ft         **          «          *          » 

™    • ,                     f  W.  4.7  7.8  9.6  14  22  30 

la \N.  4.0  6.3  9.2  13  17  23 

^           /  W.  52  59  64  82  98  118 

ljeorSia \N.  38  47  55  73  86  103 

v  t  i™      /  W-     76    92    no    138    159    186 

Kentucky \N.     22    24    22    27    27    28 

T   .c •  „      /  W.-    26    36    36    45    56    73 

Louisiana . . . .   j  N>     26    35    36    4g    5Q    65 

TV,      ,      ,              /  W.  42  52  61  -72  83  95 

Mai7land \N.  17  17  18  21  22  24 

M.    .    .     .            f  W.  30  35  38  48  54  64 

Mississippi |N.  31  44  44  65  74  91 

;,.                          f  W.  59  106  160  202  253 

Mlssouri |N.  9  12  12  15  15  16 

55  63  68  87  106  126 


W.     59  106  160  202  253  294 

N. 

North  Carolina..  |  N'           m  36  39  53  56  62 

c^  +u  r      r         /  w-           27  29  29  39  46  56 

bouth  Carolina..  |  N             39  41  ^  6Q  69  ?8 

76  83  94  114  134  154 

25  28  32  40  43  48 


Tennessee |  -^ ' 

™                           f  W.  15  42  56  120  175  243 

18 \  N.  6  18  25  39  49  62 

v.  .  .        /  W.  89  105  114  147  175  211 

Virgima |N.  53  55  53  66  67  70 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  gross  defects  of  the 
ninth  enumeration  (1870),  and  in  less  degree  of 
the  eleventh  (1890),  greatly  obscure  these  figures, 
their  import  and  their  implications  are  entirely 


206  THE    COLOR   LINE 

unmistakable.  Three  movements  deserve  espe 
cial  notice :  the  movement  in  the  first  decade,  in 
the  last  decade,  and  during  the  whole  half  cen 
tury.  Looking  then  at  Kentucky,  Maryland, 
Missouri,  and  Virginia,  we  see  that  the  Negro 
has  increased  in  numbers  in  fifty  years  by  only 
29  per  cent,  42  per  cent,  79  per  cent,  34  per 
cent.  The  general  conditions  have  been  certainly 
not  unfavourable,  and  there  has  been  no  immigra 
tion  that  could  appreciably  affect  these  percent 
ages.  Meantime  the  Whites  have  risen  in  numbers 
by  145  per  cent,  128  per  cent,  397  per  cent,  136 
per  cent — .aided,  except  in  Missouri,  not  very 
greatly  by  immigration.  That  they  are  crowding 
out  the  Blacks  very  rapidly,  is  too  plain  for  ar 
gument. 

But  not  only  is  the  Negro  yielding — he  is  yield 
ing  faster  and  faster.  In  the  first  decade  (1850-60) 
his  gains  were  7  per  cent  (not  quite),  4  per 
cent,  32  per  cent,  4  per  cent;  whereas  in 
twenty  years  (1880-1900),  the  gains  have  been 
only  5  per  cent,  12  per  cent,  11  per  cent,  7 
per  cent.  The  total  percentage  of  gain  has  been 
actually  less  in  the  two  decades  than  in  the  one. 
In  these  states,  then,  the  doom  of  the  Black  is 
sealed. 

In  Louisiana,  the  course  of  fate  is  not  less  sure. 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  207 

In  1850  the  Blacks  were  slightly  preponderant  — 
262,271  against  255,491;  in  1870,  "by  reason  of 
slaughterous  war,"  they  had  increased  their  lead 
decidedly,  and  very  greatly  in  1880  (483,655 
against  454,954) ;  but  in  1900  they  have  fallen  far 
behind  — only  650,804  against  729,612.  Of  this 
state,  then,  the  redemption  is  sure  and  in  rapid 
progress. 

Not  less  manifest  is  the  bleaching  of  North 
Carolina.  There  the  coloured  population  has  not 
doubled  itself  in  fifty  years,  whereas  the  White 
has  far  more  than  doubled  and,  but  for  the 
plague  of  war,  would  certainly  have  trebled  itself. 
In  the  first  decade  (1850-1860),  the  Whites  and 
Blacks  increased  each  by  not  quite  15  per 
cent;  but  in  the  double  decade  (1880-1900)  the 
Whites  increased  by  46  per  cent,  the  Blacks  by 
not  quite  18  per  cent. 

There  is  quite  a  similar  tale  to  be  told  of  Ten 
nessee.  The  great  empire  of  Texas  shows  a  much 
better  record;  there  the  Negro  has,  indeed,  ten- 
folded  himself  —  largely,  of  course,  by  immigra 
tion;  but  the  Whites  have  been  multiplied  by 
nearly  sixteen.  In  the  first  decade  the  Whites  in 
creased  by  173  per  cent,  the  Blacks  by  312  per 
cent ;  in  the  last  decade  the  former  increased  by 
39  per  cent,  the  latter  by  little  over  27  per 


208  THE   COLOR   LINE 

cent.  Surely,  ambiguity  here  is  quite  out  of  the 
question. 

South  Carolina  has  long  had  the  unenviable 
distinction  of  being  by  far  the  darkest  state  in  the 
Union.  In  1850  the  ratio  was  twenty-seven  to 
thirty-nine.  She  suffered  ruinously  for  her  seces 
sion  folly,  and  for  nearly  twenty  years  her  White 
population  was  practically  stationary;  in  1870  she 
had  only  twenty-nine  myriads,  and  even  in  1880 
only  thirty-nine  against  sixty  of  Blacks.  But,  at 
last,  the  tide  has  begun  to  turn.  The  introduction 
of  manufactures  promises  redemption  to  the  Pal 
metto  State.  From  1880  to  1900  the  Negroes  in 
creased  by  nearly  30  per  cent,  but  the  Whites 
by  43  per  cent.  The  hue  of  the  state  is  now 
almost  precisely  the  same  as  at  the  firing  on  Fort 
Sumter;  she  has  at  last  made  good  the  losses  of 
the  war. 

Georgia  is  the  watermelon  paradise  of  the 
Black  folk.  In  the  first  decade  they  gained  greatly 
on  the  Whites,  advancing  their  ratio  from  thirty- 
eight  to  fifty-two  up  to  forty-seven  to  fifty-nine; 
they  still  further  increased  their  gain  in  the  next 
twenty  years,  till  in  1880  the  ratio  stood  seventy- 
three  to  eighty-two.  But  this  was  the  high-water 
mark;  since  then  it  has  sunk  back  slightly  to  103 
to  118;  the  Whites  are  now  gaining  slowly.  This 


THE   ARGUMENT    FROM    NUMBERS  209 

example  is  very  instructive  and  very  encouraging; 
for  it  shows  that  even  a  steady  gain  of  the  Black 
over  the  White  continued  through  a  whole  gen 
eration  may  yet  be  turned  into  a  loss  in  the  next 
generation. 

A  similar  case  is  presented  by  Alabama.  Here 
the  Negro's  increase  in  the  first  decade  was 
27  per  cent,  the  Caucasian's  only  23  per  cent. 
The  state  suffered  frightfully  during  the  war, 
and  in  1870  the  White  population  had  actually 
fallen  from  526,271  (in  1860)  back  to  521,384. 
The  Black  population  was  then  returned  at 
475,510,  but  it  was  almost  certainly  over  500,- 
000;  for  in  the  preceding  decade  it  rose  from 
345,109  to  437,770;  it  must  (in  1870)  have  ex 
ceeded  or  at  least  equalled  the  White.  But  now  the 
Caucasian  begins  once  more  to  demonstrate  his 
superior  life-powers ;  in  the  next  three  decades  he 
nearly  doubles  his  numbers  (521,384  to  1,001- 
152),  while  the  Negro  rises  only  to  827,307.  With 
the  establishment  of  industries  in  iron,  the  tri 
umph  of  the  White  in  Alabama  has  been  assured. 

There  remain  only  Arkansas,  Florida,  and 
Mississippi.  In  the  hot  and  moist  alluvial  lands  of 
these  states,  the  Negro  seems  likely  to  make  his 
most  stubborn  stand  against  the  encroachment  of 
the  Caucasian.  In  these  three,  he  is  still  multiply- 


210  THE    COLOR   LINE 

ing  faster  than  his  competitors ;  in  one  he  is  already 
far  ahead  in  numbers.  Must  he  not,  then,  ulti 
mately  make  them  completely  his  own  ?  At  first 
sight  it  would  seem  we  should  answer  yes,  but 
closer  inspection  reveals  tendencies  that  must 
finally  reverse  the  present  conditions.  In  Arkan 
sas,  the  White  rate  has  gained  rapidly  on  the 
Black.  In  1850-60  these  rates  were:  White  100 
per  cent,  Black  133  per  cent — one-third  more; 
but  in  1890-1900,  White  15.4,  Negro  18.7,  and  for 
the  double  decade,  1880-1900,  they  were:  White 
59,  Negro  74.  From  having  been  one-third 
greater,  the  Negro  rate  has  become  about  one- 
fifth  greater. 

In  Florida  and  Mississippi,  the  complexion, 
though  still  very  dusky,  is  lighter  than  half  a  cen 
tury  ago.  In  the  former,  the  white  excess  in  1880 
was  hardly  thirteen  per  hundred  Negroes;  in  1900 
it  had  risen  to  twenty-nine.  In  the  great  cotton 
state,  the  darkest  spot  on  the  continent,  the 
Blacks  have  long  been  in  a  seemingly  hopeless 
majority.  This  amounted  to  15,000  in  1850;  in 
1860  it  had  risen  to  84,000;  in  1900  to  266,000. 
During  the  last  decade  the  Black  increase  per 
thousand  was  222,  the  White  only  177.  So  the 
situation  would  seem  to  be  growing  steadily 
worse.  However,  there  is  still  a  ray  of  hope.  The 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  211 

Blacks  are  still  gaining,  but  at  a  decreasing  rate. 
From  1850  to  1860  their  gain  per  thousand  was 
408,  but  from  1880  to  1900  it  was  hardly  396; 
they  gained  not  nearly  half  so  fast.  Meantime,  the 
White  gain  from  1850  to  1860  was  only  196  per 
thousand,  whereas  from  1880  to  1900  it  was  337; 
while  the  Black  gain  fell  from  408  to  396,  the 
White  rose  from  196  to  337.  At  this  rate  the 
White  must  surely  overtake  and  pass  the 
Black,  and  another  half  century  will  almost 
certainly  see  the  white  numbers  greatly  pre 
ponderant. 

The  case  of  Mississippi  is  especially  interesting 
as  showing  the  prospect  of  the  Blacks  at  its 
brightest  and  of  the  Whites  at  its  darkest.  This 
state  has  no  large  city,  but  few  towns  of  moder 
ate  size,  and  no  manufactures.  It  is  almost  exclu 
sively  agricultural.  Here,  then,  the  conditions 
that  make  for  the  Whites  are  at  their  worst ;  those 
that  make  for  the  Blacks  are  at  their  best.  Here, 
if  anywhere  on  our  continent,  the  odds  are  all  for 
the  Negro ;  and  yet,  even  here,  he  makes  a  losing 
fight  —  he  still  has  the  advantage,  but  it  is  slip 
ping  from  his  hands. 

We  can  think  of  only  one  objection  likely  to  be 
raised  against  the  foregoing  statistical  argument. 
Some  one  may  say  that  we  have  made  too  little  use 


212  THE   COLOR   LINE 

of  the  decade  1890-1900,  but  have  preferred  the 
score  of  years  1880-1900.  It  is  true  that  the  last 
decade  (1890-1900)  shows  better  for  the  Negro 
than  the  preceding  (1880-90) — which,  indeed, 
indicated  his  over-rapid  decadence  throughout 
the  South.  But  it  seems  hardly  possible  that  this 
showing  should  not  be  deceptive.  For  there  is  not 
a  single  known  circumstance  that  favoured  him 
in  his  last  decade  rather  than  in  the  preceding. 
The  explanation  seems  very  simple ;  the  coloured 
returns  of  the  eleventh  census  were  incomplete  - 
not  nearly  so  incomplete  as  those  of  the  ninth,  yet 
enough  so  in  comparison  with  the  tenth  and  the 
twelfth  to  make  the  showing  for  1880  to  1890  too 
bad,  and  for  1890  to  1900  too  good.  The  census 
reports  of  the  Black  population  for  1850  and  1860 
seem  to  have  been  substantially  correct;  for  1870, 
extremely  incomplete;  for  1880,  greatly  better;  for 
1890,  not  nearly  so  good;  for  1900,  much  better 
again.  For  1870  this  is  now  conceded.  Thus,  in 
Mississippi  the  coloured  population  increased 
from  1850  to  1860  by  126,000;  from  1870  to  1880 
by  206,090;  but  from  1860  to  1870  by  only  6,797 
(impossible!).  In  Kentucky  it  actually  lost  (1860- 
70)  13,957,  but  gained  (1870-80)  49,241;  and 
once  more  lost  (1880-90)  3,380.  So,  in  South 
Carolina,  the  Negro  gain  was  (1870-80)  nearly 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS 

190,000,  but  (1860-70)  only  3,500.  So,  in  Mis 
souri,  a  gain  of  28,463  (1850-60)  and  of  27,279 
(1870-80),  but  (1860-70)  a  loss  of  432. 

The  indications  of  imperfection  in  the  census 
of  1890  seem  clear,  though  not  so  glaring  as  in 
that  of  1870.  Such,  for  instance,  are  the  actual  de 
creases  in  the  Negro  population  of  Kentucky  and 
Missouri,  and  the  extremely  small  gains  (1880- 
90)  of  5,500  (Maryland),  5,000  (Missouri),  4,000 
(Virginia),  against  gains  (1890-1900)  of  19,500 
(Maryland),  11,000  (Missouri),  25,000  (Virginia). 
Other  imperfections,  not  so  glaring,  but  quite  as 
unmistakable,  a  careful  eye  may  detect  only  too 
frequently.  Thus,  consider  the  following  returns 
per  1,000,000  for  the  census  years — 


Insane 

I860 

765 

1870 

971 

1880 
1  833 

1890 

1  697 

Feeble-minded 

602 

636 

1,533 

1,526 

Deaf  and  Dumb 

408 

420 

675 

659 

Blind.. 

403 

527 

976 

805 

In  all  these  classes  a  steady  increase  up  to  1880, 
then  a  sudden  falling  off  in  1890. 

Once  more,  the  death  rate  in  the  non-registra 
tion  area  in  1880  was  13.42  per  thousand;  in  1880 
it  was  only  10.79.  Such  an  improvement  in  health, 
especially  in  districts  mainly  rural,  is  quite  in 
credible.  The  fact  is  that  for  many  purposes  of 
comparison  the  eleventh  census  is  unavailable  - 


THE    COLOR    LINE 

a  fact  that  greatly  strengthens  many  of  our  con 
tentions. 

On  its  face,  it  is  quite  too  improbable  that  the 
Blacks  should  gain  only  138  per  thousand  in  the 
decennium  1880-90  and  then,  without  any  assign 
able  cause,  leap  to  180  per  thousand  for  the  next 
decennium  (1890-1900).  Only  two  things  could 
bring  this  about  —  increase  of  birth  rate,  decrease 
of  death  rate.  The  former  is  quite  inexplicable 
and  incredible;  the  latter  is  contradicted  by  the 
facts  of  the  case.  It  would  mean  a  fall  of  four  in 
the  annual  mortality  per  thousand,  and  there  has 
been  nothing  of  the  kind. 

The  defect  in  enumeration,  certainly  so  great 
in  1870  and  almost  certainly  present  in  less  degree 
in  1890,  is  very  easy  to  understand  and  antece 
dently  probable.  For  the  prejudice  against  "  num 
bering  the  people"  has  been  strong  since  the  days 
of  David  and  of  Judas  of  Galilee,  and  the  Negro 
flees  from  the  census-taker  as  from  a  tax-gath 
erer,  or  vaccinator,  or  even  a  kodak  fiend. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  generally  admitted  that, 
in  all  arguments  from  statistics,  the  larger  the 
numbers  and  the  longer  the  space  of  time,  the 
more  trustworthy  the  indications;  in  any  case 
then  we  are  more  than  justified  in  taking  the 
double  decennium  (1880-1900)  in  comparison 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  215 

with  the  first  decade  (1850-60) ;  since  the  census  of 
1870  is  admittedly  grossly  in  error,  no  other  basis 
of  comparison  nearly  so  trustworthy  is  present. 

Herewith  then  we  close  the  argument.  It 
seems  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  higher 
percentage  of  Negro  gain  in  the  North  Atlantic 
and  North  Central  States  signifies  nothing  except 
that  small  numbers  have  been  greatly  swollen  by 
immigration.  It  is  well  known  that  in  these  re 
gions  the  Negro,  unfed  by  immigration,  tends 
swiftly  to  extinction.  Viewed  thus  from  what 
point  of  the  compass  you  will,  the  general  move 
ment  of  the  life  of  the  continent  is  towards  the 
elimination  of  the  African  element.  We  admit 
that  figures  may  be  made  to  lie,  but  we  have  sub 
jected  them  to  no  captious  cross-examination  ; 
we  have  let  them  speak  for  themselves;  we  have 
neither  forcibly  repressed  nor  forcibly  extorted 
any  testimony;  their  voluntary  witness  is  singu 
larly  consistent  and  unequivocal  and  wholly  irre 
sistible. 


ANTHROPOMETRY 

It  has  been  proved  by  the  foregoing  statistical 
study,  varied  in  every  way  and  taking  every  sig 
nificant  fact  into  consideration,  that  the  Negro  is 


216  THE    COLOR    LINE 

everywhere  in  the  United  States  yielding  and 
making  place  for  the  Caucasian.  We  might,  in 
deed,  have  anticipated  that  such  a  result  would 
follow  infallibly  upon  exposing  the  two  races  to 
open  competition.  For  the  Negro  has  never  volun 
tarily  extended  himself  beyond  his  African  home ; 
he  has  never  eagerly  sought  out  new  habitats, 
nor  readily  adapted  himself  to  new  environments ' 
whereas  the  Caucasian  has  traversed  and  colo 
nized  the  earth  from  the  equator  to  either  pole; 
he  has  plumbed  every  abyss;  he  has  scaled  every 
height;  he  has  spied  out  every  secret  place:  for 
him  no  sea  has  been  too  wide,  no  plains  too 
broad,  no  mountains  too  high,  no  sands  too  hot, 
no  snow  too  cold,  no  jungles  too  dark  and  deadly. 
He  pits  himself  against  Nature,  he  forges  for  him 
self  Achillean  armour,  he  grasps  the  shield,  he 
shakes  the  spear,  and  rushes  joyfully  to  the  en 
counter.  Nothing  of  all  this,  nothing  in  any  way 
like  aught  of  this,  has  the  Negro  ever  done; 
naught,  in  our  judgement,  will  he  ever  do.  The 
massive  facts,  then,  of  the  geographical  distribu 
tion  of  the  races  give  token  unmistakable  that,  in 
any  collision  within  any  but  the  tropical  regions, 
the  Negro  must  go  down  before  the  Caucasian. 

This   superior  vigour,  this  aggressive  vitality 
need  not  reveal  itself  to  any  mass-measurements ; 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  217 

it  might  hide  away  in  the  cells  and  the  finest  tis 
sue;  it  might  be  not  anatomic,  but  histotomic 
only.  The  distinguished  surgeon,  Dr.  Rudolph 
Matas,  as  the  result  of  wide  observation  and  care 
ful  inquiry,  declares  that  pathological-anatomical 
peculiarities  of  the  Negro  are  not  recognizable 
chirurgically;  Black  and  White  are  sensibly  the 
same. 

Nevertheless,  broad  distinctions  are  actually 
present  and  come  to  light  wherever  extensive 
observations  have  been  made.  It  is  jauntily  de 
clared  by  a  great  protagonist  of  the  Black  man 
that  "physically,  he  is  the  equal  of  the  white 
man;  he  is  as  tall  and  as  strong,"  and  such  is 
perhaps  the  general  opinion.  There  is  a  fine 
irony,  however,  in  the  fact  that  precisely  these 
moments  in  which  his  equality  is  so  incautiously 
affirmed  are  the  ones  in  which  he  is  distinctly 
inferior.  He  is  in  truth  neither  so  tall  nor  so 
strong,  though  vertical  inch  for  inch  he  is  some 
what  heavier.  It  seems  needless  to  copy  down 
table  after  table  to  prove  these  statements.  We 
quote  the  words  of  Hoffman,  summing  up  ex 
tensive  comparisons:  "The  average  stature  of 
the  negro  is  less  than  that  of  the  white,  and  the 
difference,  though  slight,  prevails  at  all  ages." 
From  Gould's  "Military  Statistics,"  pp.  461-465, 


218  THE    COLOR   LINE 

we  learn  as  distinctly  as  we  can  learn  any  such 
facts,  that  the  Negro  is  not  so  strong  as  the 
Caucasian ;  that  the  mean  lifting  strength  of  the 
Black  is  very  markedly  below  that  of  the  White 
at  all  ages  above  seventeen,  with  the  exceptions  of 
thirty-one  to  thirty-four,  where  the  Black  excess 
is  nearly  five  pounds,  and  of  forty-five  to  forty- 
nine,  where  the  Black  average  is  328.7,  the  White 
only  325.7  —  a  Black  excess  of  three  pounds. 
Under  seventeen  the  White  average  is  only  250.4, 
the  Black  258.9—  another  Black  excess  of  8.5, 
very  considerable  and  noteworthy,  and  for  seven 
teen  the  Black  excess  is  295-292.8  =  3.2.  For 
all  other  ages,  the  White  excesses  are  as  follows : 

18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26 

26.8       23.6         15        10       13.7       23.6       8.6        15.6     24.1 

27  28  29  30  35-39  40-44  50- 

6.9        13.5  9  1.4  26.8  10.4  24.2 

Hence,  it  appears  that  up  to  seventeen  the 
Negro  is  on  the  average  stronger  than  the  White ; 
he  is  also  stronger  in  the  cases  measured  from 
thirty-one  to  thirty-four  and  from  forty-five  to 
forty-nine,  though  his  advantage  is  not  great ;  but 
everywhere  else  he  is  markedly  not  so  strong.  Of 
course,  it  is  easy  to  except  to  such  statistics  —  to 
say  that  the  averages  are  untrusworthy;  but  it 
would  be  very  strange  if  so  many  distinct  and 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  219 

independent  indications  were  all  wrong.  As  the 
lowest  age  for  soldiers  is  hardly  below  sixteen, 
we  see  that  the  Black  excels,  and  only  slightly,  in 
only  twelve  years,  the  White  in  twenty-three  years 
up  to  fifty  and  in  all  above,  and  on  the  whole  very 
considerably,  his  excess  rising  twice  to  26.8.  The 
indication,  then,  is  of  a  more  tropical  nature  in 
the  Black;  he  attains  his  maximum  sooner,  but 
he  maintains  it  not  so  long  nor  so  high;  and  this 
might  certainly  have  been  expected. 

Similar  is  the  indication  of  the  respiration. 
In  full  vigour  the  average  respiration  per  minute 
of  Whites,  Blacks,  Mulattoes  are  16.44,  17.75, 
19.01;  while  with  impaired  vigour  the  average 
rates  are  for  Whites  16.84,  for  Blacks  and  Mulat 
toes  20.71.  Here  this  excessive  frequency  is  found 
at  every  age,  both  in  health  and  still  more  in 
disease,  both  for  Blacks  and  still  more  for  Mulat 
toes.  It  seems  impossible,  then,  that  the  indica 
tions  should  be  erroneous.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  pulse  of  the  White,  in  vigour  and  in  ailment, 
is  faster  than  the  full  Black's,  but  slower  than 
the  Mulatto's;  Whites  74.84,  77.21;  Blacks 
74.02,  76.91;  Mulattoes  76.97,  83.12.  Here  the 
differences  are  too  slight  for  emphasis,  and  we 
do  not  know  that  there  is  any  advantage  in  a 
somewhat  slower  pulse.  But  what  is  the  meaning 


220  THE    COLOR   LINE 

of  the  quicker  respiration  ?  It  means  the  decidedly 
lower  lung  capacity  of  the  Black.  Since  the  Black 
weighs  more  per  inch  of  height  than  the  White, 
we  are  prepared  to  find  his  chest  measurements 
greater  after  respiration.  These  measurements 
confirm  each  other.  Of  315,620  White  soldiers 
the  average  girth  of  chest  was  33.42  inches,  but 
of  25,828  coloured  soldiers  it  was  33.69;  and  this 
difference  in  favour  of  the  Blacks  maintained 
itself  for  all  statures.  However,  the  lung  capacity 
or  mobility  of  chest  (i.  e.  the  difference  between 
the  girth  at  forced  inspiration  and  forced  expi 
ration)  is  greater  in  the  Whites ;  in  6,359  Whites 
the  average  was  3.24;  in  377  Negroes  it  was  3.23. 
This  difference  is  too  small  to  be  worth  noting, 
but  mark  you!  in  the  under- weights  (100  to  120 
pounds)  the  mobility  was  far  greater  in  the 
Blacks  (3.33  against  3.15),  also  in  the  over 
weights  (180  and  more)  (3.38  against  3.27); 
but  in  the  normal  weights  (120  to  180)  it  every 
where  favoured  the  Whites.  Moreover,  these 
Whites  were  about  an  inch  taller  than  the  Blacks 
(67.30  against  66.39)  at  all  ages;  their  chest 
girth  was  nearly  half  an  inch  less  (32.49  against 
32.84),  and  yet  their  lung  capacity  was  greater. 
The  indication  of  stronger  lungs  seems  unmis 
takable. 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  221 

At  this  point  it  seems  necessary  to  point  out 
that  in  this  extremely  important  matter  of  chest 
mobility,  the  Negro  is  not  maintaining  himself 
but  is  perceptibly  declining.  In  1861-65  the  excess 
favoured  the  Whites  for  the  ages  thirty  to  thirty- 
nine,  and  under  twenty;  for  all  other  ages  it  fa 
voured  the  Blacks,  who  fell  behind  only  .01  on  the 
general  average  (3.24  and  3.23).  But  in  1892-94 
it  favours  the  Whites  at  all  ages ;  and  the  White 
excess  has  increased  to  .35  (2.93  and  2.58).  (Re 
ports  of  Provost-Marshal  General,  Vol.  I.,  and 
of  Surgeon  General  of  U.  S.  A.,  1893-95.)  The 
indication  is  not  in  itself  infallible,  but  it  has 
great  significance  in  connection  with  other  cor 
roborative  evidence. 

Lung  capacity  is  not  chest  mobility,  but  the 
two  are  closely  related.  Gould's  measurements 
indicate  a  very  decidedly  smaller  number  of 
cubic  inches  of  air  in  case  of  the  Negro,  and  this 
for  all  heights  and  weights.  The  White  excess 
increases  steadily  from  eight  cubic  inches  (for 
under-heights,  sixty  inches)  up  to  fifteen  and  one- 
half  cubic  inches  for  over-heights  (seventy-one 
inches),  but  falls  back  to  fourteen  and  one-half 
for  six-footers.  On  the  other  hand,  this  White 
excess  falls  from  twenty-five  and  one-half  cubic 
inches  for  narrow  chests  (30  inches)  down  to  two 


222  THE    COLOR   LINE 

cubic  inches  for  large  girths  (40  inches) ;  but  its 
uniform  presence  shows  that  the  excess  is  a  fact, 
whatever  may  be  the  varying  size  of  the  fact. 
Here  again  the  indication  is  unambiguous  that 
the  Negro  is  short-winded,  weak-lunged  as  com 
pared  with  his  White  rival. 

This  indication  is  immensely  strengthened  by 
combination  with  another  exceedingly  impor 
tant  fact.  It  has  been  said  that  the  Negro  is 
stouter  than  the  White,  at  all  ages  and  all  statures, 
weighing  more  per  inch  of  height.  Now  this  extra 
weight  per  vertical  inch  is  considered  of  all  out 
ward  signs  the  best  for  lung  strength  and  lung 
soundness.  "Are  you  gaining  in  weight?"  is  the 
all-important  question  that  the  physician  asks 
of  his  tuberculotic  patient.  The  Negro  has  (or 
had)  here  very  much  outwardly  in  his  favour; 
the  lower  height,  the  heavier  build,  the  greater 
girth  of  chest;  so  important  is  the  single  item  of 
weight  that  it  is  held  on  the  basis  of  the  broadest 
induction  that  even  a  very  slight  overplus  in 
heaviness  may  suffice  to  counteract  effectively  a 
hereditary  disposition  towards  tubercle,  while  ac 
tuaries  are  agreed  that  slightness  in  proportion 
to  age  and  height  greatly  determines  suscepti 
bility  to  consumption. 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all,  he  is  the  peculiar  victim 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  223 

of  tuberculosis,  which  attacks  him  not  only  with 
great  and  increasing  frequency,  but  with  especial 
malignance.  Of  his  enormous  death  rate  from 
lung  affections,  we  have  yet  to  speak.  Here  we 
would  merely  point  out  the  obvious  conclusion, 
that  histologically  the  Negro  thus  appears  infe 
rior  to  the  White  man;  not  only  do  his  tissues 
offer  ready  lodgement  to  the  invading  bacillus, 
but  they  offer  far  less  stubborn  and  protracted 
resistance  to  such  inroads  when  once  in  progress. 

At  this  point,  it  seems  well  to  quote  the  con 
clusions  of  Hoffman  (pp.  170-171): 

"First.  The  average  weight  of  the  colored 
male  of  military  age,  and  of  colored  male  and 
female  children,  is  greater  than  that  of  whites  of 
the  same  classes.  This  excess  in  weight  prevails 
irrespective  of  age,  stature,  or  circumference  of 
the  chest. 

"Second.  Already  quoted,   (p  217). 

"  Third.  The  greater  weight  and  smaller  stat 
ure  of  the  negro  as  compared  with  the  white  are 
found  to  prevail  practically  the  same  to-day  as 
thirty  years  ago.  The  race  has  therefore  under 
gone  no  decided  change  in  respect  to  these  con 
ditions  of  bodily  structure. 

"Fourth.  The  average  girth  of  chest  of  the 
negro  male  of  thirty  years  ago  was  slightly 


THE    COLOR   LINE 

greater  than  that  of  the  white,  but  at  the  pres 
ent  time  the  chest  expansion  of  the  colored 
male  is  less  than  that  of  the  white.  This  decrease 
in  the  size  of  the  living  thorax  in  part  explains 
the  increase  in  the  mortality  from  consumption 
and  respiratory  diseases. 

"Fifth.  The  capacity  of  the  lungs  of  the  negro 
is  considerably  below  that  of  the  white.  This 
fact  coupled  with  the  smaller  weight  of  the  lungs 
(4  oz.)  is  without  question  another  powerful 
factor  in  the  great  mortality  from  diseases  of  the 
lungs. 

"Sixth.  The  mean  frequency  of  respiration  is 
greater  in  the  negro  than  in  the  white.  As  accel 
erated  respiration  indicates  a  tendency  towards 
disease,  the  fact  just  stated  fully  supports  those 
regarding  inferior  vital  capacity  and  lesser  degree 
of  mobility  of  the  chest. 

"Seventh.  The  mean  lifting  strength  of  the 
white  is  in  excess  of  that  of  the  negro.  The  pre 
vailing  opinion  that  the  negro  is  on  the  whole 
more  capable  of  enduring  physical  exercise  is 
therefore  disproved."  [H.'s  "therefore"  is  quite 
unwarranted.  There  is  no  such  necessary  con 
nection  between  strength  to  lift  and  strength  to 
endure  However,  his  conclusion,  although  illog 
ical,  is  nevertheless  correct,  as  appears  plainly 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  225 

from  a  large  body  of  other  evidence.]  "This  fully 
agrees  with  the  facts  regarding  excessive  mor 
tality,  which  in  itself  is  proof"  [or  at  least  indi 
cation]  "  of  a  lesser  degree  of  physical  strength. 

"Eighth.  The  power  of  vision  of  the  negro  is 
inferior  to  that  of  the  white,  but  he  is  less  liable  to 
diseases  of  the  eye,  especially  color  blindness." 

In  the  light  of  these  "conclusions,"  which 
accord  so  perfectly  with  the  great  facts  of  geo 
graphical  distribution,  how  is  it  possible  to  speak 
of  the  Negro  as  physically  equal  to  the  Caucasian  ? 

But  not  only  is  this  comparative  structural 
weakness  clearly  indicated,  but  it  is  becoming 
more  and  more  apparent.  The  marked  apparent 
decline  in  the  chest  expansion  between  1863 
and  1894  (from  3.23  to  2.58),  the  increasing 
mortality,  the  decreasing  immunity,  the  vague 
but  unvarying  testimony  of  general  observation — 
all  tell  one  and  the  same  unambiguous  story. 


VIABILITY. 


It  has  been  well  said  by  Professor  Willcox  that 
the  three  great  causes  of  race  extinction  are 
disease,  vice,  and  profound  discouragement.  Are 
these  formidable  three  at  work  against  the  Amer- 


THE   COLOR   LINE 

ican  Negroid  ?  It  is  mainly  a  matter  of  statistical 
evidence.  We  have  indeed  few  statistics  of  dis 
couragement,  but  of  vice  and  disease  they  greatly 
abound.  Of  all  statistics  those  of  mortality  and 
vitality  are  perhaps  the  most  important,  the  most 
trustworthy,  the  most  significant,  the  most  sug 
gestive,  and  the  most  weirdly  fascinating.  They 
fill  two  gigantic  volumes  of  the  twelfth  census 
report,  and  to  them  we  appeal  in  the  prosecution 
of  our  inquiry. 

Unfortunately  these  reports,  as  wholly  trust 
worthy,  do  not  cover  the  whole  of  the  United 
States,  but  only  a  very  wide  registration  area, 
including  about  38  per  cent  of  the  total  popu 
lation  and  about  86.7  per  cent  of  the  urban 
population.  For  the  rest  only  an  inference, 
checked  on  this  side  and  on  that,  is  allowed. 
However,  the  general  result  is  affected  very  little 
by  this  undetermined  element;  and  our  argu 
ments  and  conclusions,  since  they  deal  with  only 
the  large  features  in  the  case,  are  not  affected 
at  all. 

The  first  great  fact  that  meets  us,  is  this :  The 

average  death-rate  of  the  Negro  is  not  far  from 

double  that  of  the  White.  For  the  year  1890  the 

rates  per  myriad  were:  White  196,  Coloured  299 

-a  coloured  excess  of  55  per  cent;  for  the  year 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  227 

1900  they  were:  Whites  178,  Coloured  296*- 
a  coloured  excess  of  66  per  cent.  The  rates 
were  almost  exactly  as  five  to  three!  Not  only 
then  is  the  Black  dying  faster  than  the  White, 
but  his  rate  exceeds  the  White  rate  more 
and  more,  having  gained  14  per  cent  in 
ten  years.  The  White  rate  has  fallen  very  mark 
edly  —  eighteen  per  myriad  in  these  ten  years ;  the 
Negro,  only  three  per  myriad.  Were  the  whole 
population  considered,  it  is  doubtful  whether  his 
rate  has  fallen  at  all.  Indeed,  in  cities  not  in  the 
registration  states  his  rate  has  actually  risen  per 
ceptibly,  from  309  to  313,  whereas  the  White 
rate  has  meanwhile  fallen  from  189  to  175. 


*  These  are  the  "unconnected  rates"  in  the  registration  area.  The 
rates  corrected — on  the  basis  of  age  distribution — are  still  far  more 
ominous  for  the  Negro.  They  are,  in  the  entire  registration  area:  for 
native  Whites  having  one  or  both  parents  foreign,  187;  for  native 
Whites  having  both  parents  native,  166;  for  Negroids,  347. 

"One  is  warranted,  then,  in  saying  that  according  to  the  best  evidence 
obtainable  the  death  rate  of  the  negroes  in  the  registration  area  is  nearly 
double  that  of  the  whites  in  the  same  area." 

"On  these  assumptions  the  computed  death  rate  of  the  non-Caucas 
ians  in  1890  was  34.4  and  in  1900,  34.2;  of  the  whites  in  1890,  19.5, 
and  in  1900,  17.4.  It  seems  not  improbable  that  these  figures  may  be 
trusted  so  far  as  they  indicate  that  there  has  been  a  decline  in  the  death 
rate  of  each  race  during  the  last  ten  years,  that  the  decline  among  the 
negroes  has  been  less  rapid  than  that  among  the  whites,  and  that  the 
death  rate  of  the  negroes  at  the  present  time  is  about,  but  not  quite, 
twice  that  of  the  white  race."  Census  Bulletin  8,  Negroes  in  the  United 
Stales,  p.  66a. 

But  as  the  death  rate  of  the  Negroes  in  1890  was  reckoned  on  a  return 
of  population  almost  certainly  considerably  too  low,  that  rate  was  itself 
too  high;  the  proper  correction  would  probably  bring  the  rate  in  1890 
even  below  that  of  1900. 


228  THE   COLOR   LINE 

When  now  we  consider  the  causes  of  this  aston 
ishing  mortality,  its  significance  seems  greatly 
enhanced.  It  was  long  believed,  with  more  or 
less  reason,  that  the  Negro  enjoyed  a  certain  at 
least  partial  immunity  from  some  of  the  most 
formidable  diseases  that  assail  the  Caucasian. 
He  was  thought  less  exposed  to  consumption  and 
malaria,  far  less  to  cancer  and  nervous  disorders. 
But  now  listen  to  the  tale  of  the  census !  In  scar 
let  fever  and  diphtheria  and  cancer,  the  Cauca 
sian  still  asserts  his  sad  preeminence ;  his  rates 
per  myriad  are  120,  459,  667,  against  the  Negro's 
26,  320,  480.  But  in  all  the  others,  he  is  far  out 
stripped.  Thus,  the  rates  per  million,  for  Whites 
and  Blacks,  are:  consumption,  1735  and  4854; 
pneumonia,  1848  and  3553;  diseases  of  the  ner 
vous  system,  2137  and  3080;  of  the  urinary  sys 
tem,  998  and  1573;  heart  diseases  and  dropsy, 
1374  and  2211;  typhoid  fever,  324  and  675; 
malarial  fever,  65  and  632!  We  note  here  es 
pecially  the  fearful  prevalence  of  consumption,  an 
almost  infallible  index  of  failing  vitality.  Still 
more  astonishing  is  the  mortality  from  nerve- 
diseases,  where  we  should  least  expect  them  - 
a  most  interesting  side-light  on  the  question  of 
"discouragement."  Equally  instructive  are  the 
numbers  998  and  1573;  the  sad  tale  they  tell  is 


THE   ARGUMENT    FROM    NUMBERS  229 

confirmed  by  such  facts  as  these:  the  deaths  (in 
1900)  from  diseases  affecting  female  organs  of 
generation  were:  Whites  2661,  Coloured  592. 
From  affections  concerned  with  pregnancy  they 
were:  Whites  7816,  Coloured  1883.  Remember 
that  the  former  outnumber  the  latter  nearly  eight 
to  one;  and  you  perceive  that  the  Coloured 
death-rate  is  nearly  double  the  White.  Add  to  the 
foregoing  that  the  deaths  from  venereal  diseases 
were:  Whites  1030,  Coloured  561.  At  the  White 
rate,  this  latter  should  have  been  135  only  —  an 
excess  of  316  per  cent;  the  Black  death  rate  is 
over  four  times  as  great  as  the  White.  All  this 
indicates  the  destructive  prevalence,  among  the 
Blacks,  of  these  race-ruining  maladies  from 
which  they  were  so  long  supposed  to  be  com 
paratively  exempt.  We  observe  also  that  cancer  is 
rapidly  marching  to  the  front  among  the  plagues 
of  the  Negro  —  indeed,  it  already  attacks  the 
womb  of  the  Black  more  frequently  than  that  of 
the  White.  Any  one  of  these  indications,  or  any 
two,  or  perhaps  three,  might  be  misleading;  but 
not  the  general  consensus  of  all.  If  evidence  has 
any  value  at  all,  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever 
that  these  figures  indicate  both  a  low  viability  in 
the  Black  man  and  the  appalling  prevalence  of 
the  most  race-destructive  disorders. 


230  THE   COLOR   LINE 

We  would  not  disguise  the  fact  that  the  last 
census,  while  in  general  so  exceedingly  gloomy 
in  its  omens  for  the  Negro,  is  yet  traversed  here 
and  there  by  some  brighter  ray.  Thus,  the  city 
death  rate  from  consumption  fell  from  6,001  in 
1890  to  4,710  in  1900,  and  the  rural  from  3,652 
to  3,227;  especially  the  first  comparison  seems 
very  encouraging.  But  we  must  remember  that 
in  that  decade  science  and  art  vied  in  desperate 
struggle  against  that  disease,  which  could  hardly 
fail  to  produce  at  least  temporary  notable  results, 
especially  in  the  earlier  years  of  life,  where  the 
principal  gain  was  made.  During  the  same  period 
the  White  urban  rate  fell  from  2,851  to  1,978, 
or  31  per  cent,  against  the  Negro  21.5  per 
cent;  and  the  White  rural  rate  from  1,777  to 
1,316  or  26  per  cent  against  the  Negro  loss 
of  12  per  cent  Meanwhile,  also,  the  White 
rate  for  pneumonia  has  perceptibly  fallen  every 
where,  while  the  Negro  rate  has  scarcely  changed 
in  town  (3,469  against  3,480)  and  has  actually  risen 
decidedly  in  the  country  (1,767  against  1,583), 
and  in  the  registration  area  from  279  to  349 ! 

There  is  no  escape,  then,  from  our  conclusion. 
It  is  vain  to  allege  excessive  infant  mortality,  un 
hygienic  conditions,  and  the  like  as  explanations. 
The  huge  death  rate  faces  the  observer  along 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  231 

the  whole  line  and  under  all  circumstances.  Thus 
in  the  registration  area,  for  1900,  the  Negro  rate 
for  the  various  ages  showed  the  following  ex 
cesses  over  the  White  rate: 

Ages  0-4        5-14      15-24      25-34        35-44        45-64      65- 

Excess  (per  cent.) 137   139   164   96    89    71   26 

While  these  excesses  are  greatest  up  to  man 
hood,  they  remain  very  great  even  up  to  old  age. 
The  relative  importance  of  infant  mortality 
among  the  Negroes  is  commonly  much  exagger 
ated.  In  1900  the  number  of  deaths  under  five 
years,  per  10,000  deaths  at  all  ages,  was:  Whites, 
3,022;  Negroes,  3,422  —  a  comparative  excess  of 
only  about  13  per  cent.  It  is  from  10  to  25 
that  the  Negro  offers  relatively  the  richest  field 
to  disease  and  death.  The  lowered  death-rate 
observed  in  the  cities  is  referable  almost  wholly 
to  the  earliest  years.  Thus,  in  New  Orleans,  the 
rates  for  White  and  Black  for  the  triennium 
1899-1901,  as  compared  with  1889-1891,  showed 
the  following  gains  (unmarked)  and  losses 
(marked  — )  per  myriad : 

Ages  0-4        5-9          10-19         20-29         30-49         50-69         70- 

White -172      -9          -1          -9        -26        -48      -69 

Coloured -109        2          26          62          22          57    -635 

Here  the  mortality  (per  10,000  Whites)  has 
decreased  slightly  along  the  whole  line;  among 


232  THE   COLOR   LINE 

the  Blacks  it  has  decreased  at  the  ends,  but  has 
increased  everywhere  else  —  a  result  extremely 
significant.  Similarly  for  Washington  and  Charles 
ton.  Once  more,  the  statistics  of  hospitals,  as  the 
Johns  Hopkins  (Baltimore)  and  the  Charity 
(New  Orleans),  show  an  average  death  rate  of 
the  Blacks  nearly  double  that  of  the  Whites, 
except  in  surgical  cases.  Here  the  general  con 
ditions  are  practically  the  same  for  both  races, 
the  duration  of  treatment  averages  the  same, 
and  the  far  greater  mortality  is  virtually  decisive 
for  the  far  less  vitality  of  the  Negro  race. 

The  very  strongest  corroboration  of  our  con 
tention  is  furnished  by  Surgeon- General  O'Reilly 
in  his  recent  report  for  the  fiscal  year,  ending 
June  30,  1903.  The  death  rates  of  White  and 
Coloured  soldiers  were  144  and  241  per  myriad, 
respectively,  almost  exactly  in  the  ratio  of  three 
to  five  —  a  coloured  excess  of  over  67  per 
cent.  Here  the  life  conditions  were  sensibly  the 
same;  the  far  higher  vitality  of  the  Caucasian 
appears  in  the  boldest  relief. 

The  question  of  increase,  already  discussed, 
is  very  intimately  connected  with  the  death  rate, 
but  equally  so  with  the  far  less  accurately  known 
birth  rate;  in  fact,  the  rate  of  growth  in  numbers 
is  the  difference  of  these  two.  Evidently,  a  very 


THE   ARGUMENT    FROM    NUMBERS  233 

high  death  rate  may  consist  with  a  rapid  increase 
in  numbers,  if  only  the  birth  rate  be  high  enough; 
on  the  other  hand,  even  a  high  birth  rate  would 
bring  about  little  increase,  if  the  death  rate 
should  be  inordinately  high.  No  one  seriously 
questions  the  great  mortality  among  the  Negroes ; 
but  their,  champions  think  and  hope  that  this 
may  be  made  good  by  extreme  fertility.  Let  us 
see  what  this  latter  would  have  to  be.  Since  the 
former  is  nearly  300  per  myriad,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  very  low  rate  of  growth  of  100  per 
myriad,  the  latter  would  have  to  reach  400.  Is 
this  rate  a  fact  ?  And,  if  so,  is  it  likely  to  continue 
to  be  a  fact  ?  We  shall  summon  all  the  evidence 
accessible,  both  direct  and  indirect.  While  noth 
ing  like  minute  exactness  is  at  present  attain 
able,  the  general  purport  of  the  testimony  can 
not,  it  seems,  be  mistaken. 

The  birth  and  death  rates  for  certain  Euro 
pean  countries,  for  the  last  decade,  are  as  follows 
(per  myriad) : 

England     Scotland   Ireland    Denmark  Norway    Sweden 
andW. 

Births 301          307          230          303          304          272 

Deaths 184          188          181  177          165          164 

Increase 117          119  49          126          139          108 

Austria  Hungary  Ger.  Emp.  Prussia  Netherl'd  Belgium 

Births 372    405    362    368    327  289 

Deaths 271    303    225    221    186  192 

Increase 101    102    137    147    141  97 


234  THE    COLOR   LINE 

France  Italy  Switzerland 

Births 222  355                  277 

Deaths 216  246                  190 

Increase 6  109                    87 

In  Eastern  Europe,  says  Rubin,  the  birth  rate 
varied  from  450  to  470  for  a  century  (1800  to 
1900);  but  in  Western  Europe,  since  1870,  it  fell 
from  342  to  313  (1900). 

The  determination  of  this  rate  in  the  United 
States  cannot  be  made  with  certainty  or 
confidence,  owing  to  the  imperfection  of  the 
data.  Our  census  reports  yield  such  results 
as  these  for  the  last  decade,  for  the  whole 
United  States,  according  to  the  analyses  of  the 
census : 

Average  annual  excess  of  births  per  myriad, 
177;  average  annual  number  of  deaths  per 
myriad,  174;  hence,  average  annual  number  of 
births  per  myriad,  351. 

On  this  result  we  may  perhaps  rely  so  far  as 
to  say  that  the  rate  lies  somewhere  between  330 
and  370. 

Similar  analysis  yields  the  following  average 
annual  excess  of  births  for  native  Whites,  foreign 
Whites,  and  the  Coloured  (i.  e.  practically  Ne 
groes)  in  the  United  States,  and  in  the  four  grand 
divisions:  Northeastern,  Central  and  Northern, 
Southern,  and  Western. 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  235 

N.  W.  F.  W.  C. 

UnitedStates 195  365  178 

Northeastern 38  396  101 

Central  and  Northern 200  360  102 

Southern 241  274  191 

Western 259  403  2 

Here  the  more  rapid  multiplication  of  the  Cau 
casian  is  indicated  under  all  conditions,  with  the 
single  startling  exception  of  New  England.  In 
the  West,  the  Coloured  are  mostly  Indians. 

Not  less  impressive  are  these  same  excesses 
arranged  by  States : 

Ala.  Ark.  Del.  D.  C.  Fla.  Ga.  Ky.  La.  Md.  Miss.  N.  C.  S.  C. 

N.  W.   276  297  103  132  288  234  209  358  168  258  193  178 

F.W.   306  317  310  194  497  240  152  112  175  225  104  110 

C.     249  233  73  107  245  225  83  215  92  264  138  167 

Tenn.  Tex.  Va.  W.Va.  111.  Ind.  la.  Kan.  Mich.  Minn.  Mo.  Neb. 

N.W   173  387  75  339  228  163  298  216  193  400  263  222 

F.W.   230  532  106  252  439  194  310  300  401  534  171  437 

C.     136  310  74  196  168  142   62  202  150   26   90  -43 

N.  J.  N.  D.  O.  Pa.  S.  D.  Wis.  Conn.  Me.  Mass.  N.  H.  N.Y.  R.  I.  Vt. 

N.  W.  139  353  129  140  299  412  -18  -42  38  -104  89  ...  -88 

F.  W.  398  921  219  368  528  345  425  474  456  585  366  462  232 

C.    136-230  120  138-241-146  89  125174-150  88  60184 

To  be  sure,  these  results  are  greatly  compli 
cated  and  deeply  obscured  by  immigration  and 
emigration.  None  of  them  state  the  case  correct 
ly;  but  they  can  not  all  err  the  same  way,  and 
collectively  they  exhibit  clearly  that  the  Negro 
is  losing  ground  everywhere  in  the  race  for  num 
bers.  But  these  rates  furnish  us  no  independent 
evidence  concerning  the  birth  rate.  Such,  how- 


236  THE    COLOR   LINE 

ever,  we  find  in  the  number  of  births  in  the  census 
years  1890  and  1900.  The  returns  are  certainly 
incorrect,  certainly  incomplete ;  they  yield  a  mean 
birth  rate  of  only  272  —  surely  too  small,  leaving 
a  deficiency  of  79  or  of  28^  per  cent.  That  the 
enumeration  of  births  should  be  defective  is  not 
at  all  surprising;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  sup 
pose  the  returns  for  1890  less  imperfect,  and  a 
comparison  of  the  two  cannot  fail  to  be  in 
structive  : 

U.  S.  N.  E.  C.&  N.  S.W.  Conn.  Me.  Mass.  N.  H.  N.Y.  R.  I.  Vt.  Ind. 
1900  272  238  259  315  240  211  240  213  242  243  213  249 
1890  269  221  268  301  213  176  215  180  233  223  183  254 

111.  la.  Kan.  Mich.  Minn.  Mo.  Neb.  N.  J.  N.  D.  O.  Pa.  S.  D.  Wis.  Al. 
1900  255  258  258  243  287  260  272  258  336  231  269  308  274  321 
1890  278  263  285  249  302  290  299  253  365  242  258  318  271  306 

Ark.  Del.  D.  C.  Fla.  Ga.  Ky.  La.  Md.  Miss.  N.  C.  Okl.  S.  C.  Tenn.  Tex. 
1900  324  247  203  309  321  306  305  263  312  337  337  343  307  329 
1890  343  250  233  287  306  296  298  260  303  301  221  313  308  316 

Va.  W.Va.  Ariz.  Cal.  Col.  Ida.  Mt.  Nev.  N.  M.  Or.  Ut.  Wash.  Wy. 
1900  303  332  269  183  239  304  244  189  336  204  352  220  242 
1890  272  307  172  196  256  266  218  155  330  226  312  238  217 

These  data  are  inexact;  they  are  bound  up 
with  the  errors  of  enumeration,  particularly  in 
1890,  but  they  confirm  in  general  the  high  fe 
cundity  of  the  American  Caucasian  everywhere, 
save  in  the  Northeast.  The  high  rate  indicated 
in  the  South  cannot  be  due  to  the  Negro.  In 
West  Virginia  the  coloured  element  is  insignifi- 


THE    ARGUMENT    FROM    NUMBERS  237 

cant,  yet  the  return  is  very  large  —  332 ;  in  Ken 
tucky  the  Negro  hardly  holds  his  own  in  numbers, 
yet  the  whole  birth  rate  is  306.  In  the  Carolinas 
the  native  Whites  have  far  outrun  the  Blacks 
in  increase,  and  the  birth  numbers  are  337,  343; 
whence  it  seems  clear  that  nothing  points  to  a 
Negro  rate  higher  than  351 — higher  than  the 
general  average  for  the  Union.  But  is  the  Black 
rate  really  so  high  ?  Despite  the  prevailing  crude 
opinion,  we  feel  sure  that  it  is  sensibly  lower  and  is 
steadily  falling.  There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of 
the  Negro  to  suggest  great  fecundity.  He  has  never 
populated  his  fatherland  densely  and  poured 
over  into  the  territory  of  his  neighbours.  In  the 
West  Indies,  where  birth  tables  have  been  kept 
with  some  care,  there  is  no  token  of  great  fer 
tility.  In  Alabama,  the  records  since  1888  point 
to  a  birth  rate  among  Whites  thrice  as  high, 
among  Blacks  only  twice  as  high,  as  the  death 
rate.  In  1890  the  births  recorded  were:  Whites 
13,631;  Blacks  9,955  —  the  highest  in  six  years 
but  one  (9,961  in  1893).  In  this  year  the  popula 
tions  were  as  100  to  83,  but  the  births  as  100  to 
73.  You  say  that  the  Black  births  were  not  all 
recorded.  Very  true,  but  neither  were  the  White. 
The  excess  of  deficiency  in  the  Blacks  must 
have  been  14  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  in  order 


238  THE    COLOR   LINE 

to  make  their  rate  equal  to  the  Whites'.  Maybe 
these  records  are  not  worth  the  paper  they  were 
written  on ;  but  can  the  same  be  said  of  the  New 
England  records  ?  In  Rhode  Island,  from  1861 
to  1893,  the  excess  of  deaths  over  births,  among 
the  Negroes,  was  18;  in  Connecticut  from 
1881  to  1893  the  same  excess  was  272;  in  Massa 
chusetts  in  1888  it  was  68.  ".  .  .  we  must 
conclude,  however  reluctantly  (sic!),  that  the 
race  is  not  self-sustaining  in  this  latitude" 
(Dr.  Fisher,  Registrar  of  Vital  Statistics, 
Rhode  Island,  quoted  by  Hoffman).  Similarly 
Dr.  Snow,  Registrar  of  Providence;  similarly 
Appolino,  Registrar  of  Boston  (both  quoted  by 
Hoffman).  We  could  go  on  massing  such  evidence, 
but  it  may  all  be  scouted  as  irrelevant,  since  the 
question  is  not  about  the  Negro  in  the  North, 
but  in  the  South.  However,  it  is  precisely  in  the 
North,  especially  the  Northeast,  that  his  num 
bers  are  increasing,  of  course  by  immigration, 
faster  and  faster;  if,  then,  he  "is  doomed  to  ex 
tinction"  there,  his  numbers  elsewhere  must  suf 
fer  corresponding  depletion. 

There  is  yet  another  and  more  satisfactory  way 
of  attacking  this  problem  of  the  birth  rate  —  not  a 
direct,  but  an  indirect  one.  Says  the  great  statis 
tician,  Marcus  Rubin,  in  his  paper  on  "Popu- 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  239 

lation  and  Birth  Rate,"  read  before  the  Brit 
ish  Association  at  Bradford,  September,  1900: 
"Quite  generally  it  may  be  remarked  that  a 
large  birth  rate  will  crowd  the  age-groups  cor 
responding  to  childhood  comparatively  to  what 
would  result  from  a  small  birth  rate.  It  is  also 
clear  that,  when  the  adults  produce  a  numerous 
offspring,  the  latter  will,  other  things  being 
equal,  constitute  a  larger  proportion  of  the  whole 
population  than  if  it  were  less  numerous." 

Rubin  has  Denmark  in  mind,  and  western 
Europe;  —  he  is  not  dreaming  of  the  Gulf  States. 
Let  us  apply  this  common-sense  principle  to  the 
case  in  hand.  Here  is  a  table  of  the  per  thousands 
of  the  population  at  various  ages,  native  White 
and  Black.  We  take  the  native  White,  since  im 
migrants  are  generally  of  full  age,  and  we  are 
now  concerned  with  the  general  fertility  of  Cau 
casian  natives  and  not  of  foreigners;  of  the  latter, 
it  is  confessedly  very  high. 


Under  1  year 

N.W. 
N. 

1880 

33 
34 

1890 

30 

28 

1900 

30 

28 

From  1  to  4  years 

N.W. 
N. 

123 
131 

112 
111 

110 

109 

From  5  to  9  years 

N.W. 
N. 

144 
154 

136 
145 

133 
136 

Total  under  10  years 

N.W. 

N. 

300 
319 

278 

284 

273 
273 

240  THE    COLOR    LINE 

Here  the  situation  is  revealed  with  great  clear 
ness.  We  see  that  both  in  White  and  in  Black  the 
race  is  aging;  extreme  youth  is  becoming  less  and 
less  conspicuous.  But  the  diversities  are  broadly 
marked.  In  babes,  the  Blacks  fall  behind  by  two 
per  thousand  of  their  total ;  in  children  from  one 
to  four  years,  they  again  fall  behind,  but  only  one 
per  thousand;  in  children  from  five  to  nine  they 
excel  by  three  per  thousand ;  in  the  grand  total  of 
children  under  ten,  they  exactly  equal  the  native 
Whites.  This  record  of  itself  clearly  indicates  a 
failing  fecundity  in  the  Blacks ;  the  younger,  the 
fewer,  comparatively. 

Still  more  clearly  is  this  seen,  on  comparing  the 
earlier  record  of  1880.  Then  the  Black  youth  sur 
passed  the  White  relatively  at  all  ages — by  one,  by 
eight,  by  ten,  and  in  the  grand  total  by  nineteen. 
All  this  superiority  has  been  lost  in  twenty  years. 
It  seems  hard  to  imagine  a  more  impressive 
record.  High  mortality  among  infants  will  not 
explain  this,  especially  it  will  not  explain  the  loss 
in  the  score  of  years,  nor  the  relative  scarcity  of 
the  very  young.* 

*  "The  number  of  negro,  Indian,  and  Mongolian  children  under  5 
years  of  age  to  each  1,000  women  15  to  44  years  of  age  was  759  in  1880 
and  585  in  1900,  showing  a  decrease  of  174  [  23  per  cent. !]  in  twenty 
years.  The  number  in  1880  was  173  greater,  and  in  1900,  77  greater 
than  the  corresponding  number  for  the  whites."  Census  Bulletin  8, 
Negroes  in  the  United  states,  p.  14a. 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  241 

But  another  fact  is  illuminative.  The  chief  sta 
tistician,  William  C.  Hunt,  remarks  (Population, 
Part  II.,  p.  Iviii.):  "The  decrease  in  the  relative 
proportion  of  children  among  the  negro  element 
is  due  for  the  most  part  to  the  greater  infant  mor 
tality  of  the  negro  race  as  compared  with  the 
native  white  population,  although  it  may  be  due 
in  part  to  the  decrease  in  the  proportion  of  negro 
women  who  are  or  have  been  married,  for  each 
age-group  except  that  from  15  to  19  years, 
as  shown  by  the  statistics  of  conjugal  con 
dition  for  1890  and  1900."  We  have  just  ob 
served  that  the  first  explanation  does  not  explain. 
"  Greater  infant  mortality"  might  cause  a  smaller 
"  relative  proportion  of  children  among  the  Negro 
element,"  both  in  1880  and  in  1900;  but  it  could 
not  cause  a  "decrease  in  the  relative  proportion" 
from  1890  to  1900,  unless  that  mortality  was  not 
only  great,  but  actually  becoming  greater.  But 
such  is  not  the  fact ;  if  it  were,  it  would  mean  ruin 
to  the  Negro  race.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  precisely 
in  these  years  of  infancy  that  the  mortality  has 
been  reduced.  Nor  could  even  a  huge  mortality, 
extending  up  to  the  tenth  year,  of  itself  bring 
about  the  relatively  small  number  of  babes  under 
one  year.  It  is  the  second  fact,  which  we  have 
italicized,  that  throws  light  on  the  situation.  Ex- 


242  THE    COLOR    LINE 

cept  very  young  girls,  whose  marriages  are  largely 
transient  or  nominal,  the  Negro  women  are  be 
ginning  to  shun  marriage.  This  is  a  part  of  the 
general  moral  and  social  declension,  which  no  un 
biased  observer  of  the  race  can  fail  to  notice.  Here 
are  the  numbers  per  thousand,  male  and  female, 
of  the  single  and  married  and  widowed,  of  those 
over  fifteen  years  of  age,  in  1890  and  1900: 

1900  1890  1900  1890 

Single (M).        392          398  Single  ..  (F)         299  300 

Married  .  .  (M)         540  555  Married     (F)         537  546 

Widowed  .  (M)  58  43  Widowed  (F)         154  147 

And  for  native  Whites: 

Single (M)         397          401  Single  . . .  (F)         310  306 

Married  ..(M)         549          554  Married  .  (F)         577  582 

Widowed...  (M)          45  40  Widowed.  (F)        106  107 

The  fall  from  546  to  537  is  not  large— only  9; 
but  it  must  be  increased  by  the  increase  7 
of  those  returning  themselves  as  "widows,"  of 
which  the  number,  154,  is  excessive,  and  by  the 
excess  (3)  of  divorcees,  making  altogether  an 
increase  of  about  2  per  cent  of  the  female 
population,  who  decline  to  produce  their  kind 
legitimately.  It  is  impossible  to  interpret  this 
otherwise  than  as  a  sign  of  moral  and  social 
deterioration,  which  Nature  cannot  fail  to  punish 
promptly  by  a  diminishing  birth  rate. 

It  is  also  seen  that  the  White  ratio  of  the  mar- 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  243 

ried  women  has  fallen  slightly,  from  582  to  577  - 
about  half  as  fast  as  the  Black,  the  number  of  the 
single  increasing  from  306  to  310.  Undoubtedly, 
the  growing  determination  of  the  White  woman 
to  be  a  man  —  to  compete  with  a  man  in  all  forms 
of  activity  —  has  sensibly  reduced  the  marriage 
rate,  and  therewith  the  birth  rate  of  the  Cau 
casian,  and  will  yet  further  reduce  it  —  a  result 
we  must  deplore;  but  there  is  here  no  sign  of  dete 
rioration,  as  in  case  of  the  Black  woman.  In  her 
case  it  is  attested  freely  by  the  more  respectable 
Negroes  themselves.  Ask  such  a  one  to  recom 
mend  some  "nice  coloured  girl"  as  a  domestic, 
and  she  will  probably  reply  frankly  that  she 
knows  of  none,  that  they  are  altogether  become 
unprofitable,  that  they  are  scandalously  and  out 
rageously  unchaste,  that  there  is  none  that  doeth 
good  —  no,  not  one.  At  this  point  we  speak  from 
personal  knowledge.  In  such  statements,  there  is 
no  doubt  considerable  exaggeration ;  but  they  are 
largely  and  increasingly  correct.  Even  Professor 
Dubois,  the  ablest  of  Afro-Americans,  confesses 
that  about  one-fifth  of  the  Negro  families  belong 
to  the  lowest  class  —  "  below  the  line  of  respect 
ability,  living  in  loose  sexual  relationship,"  and 
so  on.  "Laziness  and  promiscuous  sexual  inter 
course  are  their  besetting  sins."  He  is  reporting 


244  THE    COLOR   LINE 

on  the  'Negroes  of  Farmville,  Va.  (Department 
of  Labour  Bulletin,  January,  1898,  p.  37.) 

Much  somberer  colours  must  be  used  in  de 
picting  the  conditions  in  larger  towns.  He  found 
about  1 5  per  cent  belonging  to  the  higher  class  - 
a  percentage  that  wider  investigation  would 
hardly  maintain.  In  another  connection  the  same 
stern  prophet  declares:  "Unless  we  conquer  our 
present  vices,  they  will  conquer  us.  We  are  dis 
eased;  we  are  developing  criminal  tendencies, 
and  an  alarmingly  large  percentage  of  our  men 
and  women  are  sexually  impure. " 

Entirely  confirmatory  of  our  contentions  are 
the  results  of  the  intensive  studies  of  Professor 
Dubois.  Thus  he  finds  that  the  average  Negro 
family  in  Philadelphia  numbers  3.18,  but  little 
more  than  one  child  to  the  couple.  The  Mongrel 
record  is  even  worse.  Of  thirty-three  families 
(four  White  husbands,  twenty-nine  White  wives), 
the  average  size  was  2.9;  there  seem  to  have  been 
thirty-five  children  in  all.  This  painstaking  sociol 
ogist  admits:  (1)  "That  a  tendency  to  much  later 
marriage  than  under  the  slave  system  is  revolu 
tionizing  the  Negro  family  and  incidentally  lead 
ing  to  much  irregularity."  (2)  "There  is,  never 
theless,  still  the  temptation  for  young  men  and 
women  under  forty  to  enter  into  matrimony  be- 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  245 

fore  their  economical  condition  warrants  it. "  (3) 
"Among  persons  over  forty,  there  is  a  marked 
tendency  towards  single  life. "  (4)  "  The  very  large 
number  of  widowed  and  separated  points  to 
grave  physical,  economical,  and  moral  disorder" 
(op.  cit.9  p.  70). 

Among  college-bred  Negroes,  presumably  by 
far  the  best  class,  Dubois  finds  491  couples  rep 
resented  by  1,081  children,  of  whom  877  survive, 
982  by  887.  This  number  may  yet  be  increased 
somewhat  by  more  births ;  but  it  will  also  be  de 
creased  by  deaths  of  the  young,  so  that  the  total 
of  the  next  propagative  generation  will  very 
improbably  reach  the  number  of  the  parents, 
982. 

Once  more,  consider  this  table  of  the  percent 
ages  in  families  of  one,  two  to  six,  seven  to  ten, 
eleven  and  more  in  the  United  States  in  general, 
and  in  the  Negro  population  of  a  number  of  cities, 
as  Atlanta,  Nashville,  Cambridge: 

1  2  to  6  7  to  10  11  and  more 

U.S.  3.63  73.33  20.97  2.07 

N.  4.75  79.85  15.22  .18 

It  is  seen  that  the  small  families  (Negro) 
greatly  preponderate.  Of  the  79.85  per  cent., 
nearly  one-fourth  (19.17  per  cent.)  were  families 
of  only  two  (op.  cit.,  p.  167). 


246  THE   COLOR    LINE 

"  For  several  decades  to  come,  the  average  size  of 
the  Negro  family  will  decrease  until  economic  well- 
being  can  keep  pace  with  the  demands  of  a  rising 
standard  of  living"  (op.  cit.,  p.  166).  We  have 
italicized  this  sentence,  for  it  pronounces  the 
doom  of  the  Negro. 

As  the  standard  of  living  rises,  as  competition 
sharpens,  his  economic  "well-being  "  will  find  it 
harder  and  harder  to  "keep  pace,"  his  family 
will  shrink  more  and  more,  his  race  will  dwindle 
faster  and  faster  into  insignificance. 

A  striking  corroboration  of  our  results  surprises 
the  reader  of  Professor  C.  H.  Crogman's  work, 
'The  Remarkable  Advancement  of  the  Afro- 
American,"  at  Chapter  XIII,  on  "Mortality." 
Therein  Professor  Harris,  of  Fisk  University,  re 
ports  an  intensive  study  of  the  Nashville  Negro, 
whose  circumstances  are  at  least  comparatively 
favourable.  In  145  families  he  found  649  persons, 
an  average  of  not  quite  4^;  hence,  he  yields  the 
contention  that  the  Negro  is  "prolific."  :<The 
excessive  mortality"  he  found  "due  largely  and 
perhaps  altogether,  to  constitutional  diseases." 
"Pulmonary  consumption  is  the  'destroying 
angel/"  "Thirteen  suffer  from  scrofula."  "More 
white  people  die  from  contagious  diseases  and 
local  diseases  than  colored;  while  more  colored 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  247 

people  die  from  constitutional  diseases  than 
white."  The  "crimes  of  mothers,"  he  found 
"  also  a  fruitful  reason  of  the  slow  rate  of  increase 
in  the  colored  population.  This  state  of  affairs  is 
not  confined  to  Nashville.  It  is  true  of  nearly  all 
our  large  Southern  cities ;  and  whether  we  like  it 
or  not,  the  hard  fact  remains  that  the  enormous 
death  rate  among  us,  together  with  our  small 
birth  rate,  is  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times  that, 
unless  our  home  life  be  radically  changed,  the 
Negro  problem  in  America  may  be  ultimately 
solved  by  the  extinction  of  the  Negro. "  And  more 
to  the  same  effect. 

Such  is  the  state  of  case,  as  attested  by  a  pro 
fessor  in  the  best-known  coloured  university, 
among  a  populace  that  have  dwelt  for  a  whole 
generation  in  the  shadow  of  this  noted  seminary. 
House-to-house  investigation  tells  everywhere 
the  same  story.  Thus,  in  1901,  as  appears  from 
the  "concrete  study"  embodied  in  the  Master's 
Dissertation  of  William  Wilson  Elwang,  there 
were  34  births  in  a  Negro  population  of  1,916 
(Columbia,  Mo.)  -  -  17  per  thousand  against  a 
death  rate  of  24  per  thousand.  The  small  family 
average  was  almost  precisely  the  same  as  in  Nash 
ville.  There  were  only  161  children  under  6  years 
of  age,  and  60  married  couples  were  childless! 


248  THE    COLOR   LINE 

The  interpretation  has  already  been  suggested  in 
the  foregoing  quotations. 

From  all  of  this  it  is  clear,  not  only  that  the 
coloured  birth  rate  is  low  and  is  falling,  but  why 
it  is  low,  and  why  it  is  falling.  It  is  almost  im 
possible  that  it  should  long  remain  so  much  as 
thirty-five  per  thousand  per  annum,  or  even  thirty- 
four  or  thirty-three.  It  seems  certainly  descending 
towards  thirty  —  that  is,  300  births  per  myriad 
yearly.  But  the  present  death  rate  is  296  per 
myriad;  it  fell  only  three,  from  299  to  296,  in  the 
decade  from  1890  to  1900;  it  actually  rose  from 
308  to  313  in  the  cities  of  the  non-registration 
area.  Thus  it  appears  certain  that  the  birth  and 
death  rates  of  the  Negro  cannot  continue  very  far 
apart,  that  they  are  steadily  approaching,  and 
that  without  some  strange  reversal  of  present  ten 
dencies,  the  birth  rate  must  ere  long  fall  below 
the  death  rate  in  all  but  a  very  few  districts,  and  at 
no  distant  period  even  in  them.  In  all  likelihood 
these  tendencies  will  be  rather  strengthened  than 
weakened  with  advancing  years,  and  there  are 
those  now  living  who  will  actually  see  the  Afro- 
American  moving  rapidly  towards  extinction. 
But  even  at  the  present  rate,  he  must  shrink 
swiftly  in  importance;  for  the  census  analyst  ad 
mits  that  even  in  the  registration  area  the  death 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  249 

rate  of  the  Negro  is  about  ten  per  thousand 
greater  than  that  of  the  foreign  White,  and  about 
thirteen  per  thousand  greater  than  that  of  the  na 
tive  White.  Since  his  birth  rate  can  hardly,  in  the 
extremest  cases,  exceed  the  native  White's,  much 
less  the  foreigner's,  it  follows  that  both  must  gain 
and  are  gaining  on  him,  at  least  ten  per  thousand 
yearly.  Regard  it,  then,  as  you  will,  there  is  no 
escape  from  our  general  conclusion,  which  faces 
us  from  the  whole  circle  of  statistical  fact. 


RECORD   OF   CRIME 

We  pass  now,  formally,  to  the  second  grand  cause 
of  the  Negro's  race  declension  —  namely,  his  vice. 
The  general  fact  is  a  matter  of  the  most  common 
observation,  but  it  is  also  witnessed  unimpeach- 
ably  by  the  records  of  the  courts.  Here  is  how 
the  case  stands  in  the  census  of  1890.  The  White 
population  was  then  almost  exactly  seven  and  one- 
half  times  the  Black.  The  prisoners  in  the  United 
States,  June  1,  1890  were:  Whites  57,310,  Blacks 
24,277.  In  proportion  to  numbers,  the  Black  pris 
oners  should  have  been  7,642,  but  they  were  more 
than  thrice  as  many;  the  Black  appears  more  than 
thrice  as  criminal  as  the  White.  This,  however,  is 


250  THE    COLOR    LINE 

not  nearly  the  whole  truth.  The  list  of  Caucasian 
crimes  swells  chiefly  in  the  Northeast,  where 
foreigners  most  and  Negroes  least  abound.  In  the 
various  grand  divisions  of  the  country,  the  record 
comes  out  far  more  clearly.  Thus,  in  the  North 
Atlantic,  there  were  in  prison:  Whites  26,182, 
Blacks  2,037.  Out  of  every  myriad  of  population 
there  were  155  Blacks;  out  of  every  myriad  of 
prisoners  there  were  722  Blacks;  his  prison  rate 
was  nearly  five  times  as  high  as  the  Caucasian  - 
this,  too,  in  a  region  of  urban  population,  largely 
immigrant.  In  the  North  Central  there  were  2,738 
Black  prisoners  and  17,027  White;  the  Negro 
furnished  not  2  per  cent  of  the  population,  but 
nearly  14  per  cent  of  the  crime;  he  was  more 
than  seven  times  as  criminal  as  the  White. 

In  the  South  Atlantic  States,  he  furnished  8,863 
prisoners  against  2,544  Whites ;  not  37  per  cent 
of  the  population,  but  over  77  per  cent  of  the 
trespass;  proportionally,  he  offended  almost 
six  times  as  often  as  the  Whites.  In  the  South 
Central  the  prison  record  stood:  Whites  5,604, 
Blacks  10,381;  the  populations  are  as  6,828  to 
3,171;  the  Black  appears  nearly  four  times  as 
criminal  as  the  White. 

It  is  often  urged  that  the  comparative  criminal 
ity  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  is  exaggerated.  The 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  251 

White  transgressor  has  friends,  money,  and 
social  position  and  manages  to  evade  the  law;  the 
Negro  is  poor,  friendless,  and  outcast  and 
falls  an  easy  victim.  In  a  measure,  this  may  be 
true  —  we  are  ashamed  to  confess ;  but  it  cannot 
alter  the  general  fact,  only  its  degree.  On  the 
other  hand,  very  many  offences  of  Black  against 
Black  must  go  unchallenged  by  the  law,  both 
from  apathy  and  from  fear.  These  two  consider 
ations,  very  likely,  about  balance  each  other.  It  is 
thoroughly  decisive,  however,  that  the  Negro  ap 
pears  a  greater  criminal  in  the  North  and  East, 
where  there  is  no  prejudice  against  him  than  in 
the  South,  where  the  prejudice  is  supposed  to  be 
so  strong.  If  we  compare  the  states,  we  may  see 
this"  even  more  clearly.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
prisoners  were:  Whites  5,157,  Blacks  161.  Since 
the  latter  formed  not  1  per  cent  of  the  popu 
lation,  their  criminality  appears  over  three  times 
as  great  as  the  White ;  yet  they  are,  presumably, 
the  very  elect  of  the  race — the  best  Negroes  in  the 
world.  In  New  York,  there  were  10,745  White 
prisoners  and  723  Black ;  but  the  latter  numbered 
only  117  per  myriad;  hence,  their  criminality  was 
six  times  as  great  as  the  White.  In  Pennsylvania 
there  were  5,749  White  prisoners  and  738  Black; 
but  the  latter  formed  little  over  2  per  cent  of  the 


252  THE   COLOR   LINE 

population;  hence,  again,  their  criminality  was 
six  times  that  of  the  White.  In  West  Virginia  there 
were  320  Whites  in  prisons  and  130  Blacks;  these 
latter  formed  not  5  per  cent  of  the  population ; 
they  were  seven  times  as  criminal  as  the  White. 
Washington  City  is  the  Mecca  of  the  Negro; 
there,  if  anywhere  on  earth,  he  should  show  him 
self  at  his  best.  What  is  the  prison  record  ?  Whites 
138,  Blacks  358;  yet  he  numbers  only  328  per 
thousand  —  he  is  more  than  five  times  as  criminal 
as  the  Whites.  In  Ohio  there  were  481  Black 
prisoners,  representing  only  247  per  myriad  of  the 
population,  and  2,415  Whites;  again,  an  eightfold 
criminality.  In  Michigan  there  is  no  prejudice 
against  the  Negro,  but  rather  for  him,  and  how 
stands  the  court  record  ?  He  numbers  only  73  per 
myriad  of  the  population,  yet  he  furnishes  141 
prisoners  against  1,998  Whites  —  this  time  a 
criminality  tenfold !  In  the  South  his  record  is 
seemingly  better.  In  Louisiana  the  Blacks  num 
bered  one-half,  but  the  population  of  the  prisons 
was  367  Whites,  1,238  Blacks;  the  latter  were 
not  quite  fourfold  criminal.  In  Alabama  the  pop 
ulation-ratio  was  5,516  to  4,484,  but  the  prison- 
ratio  was  422  to  2,096.  On  dividing  the  former  by 
the  latter,  we  find  the  crime-ratio  of  six  to  one. 
In  Mississippi,  the  population-ratio  was  4,342  to 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  253 

5,658;  the  prison-ratio  was  119  to  1,058;  their 
quotient,  the  crime-ratio,  was  over  six  to  one. 

In  Virginia  the  ratio  is  over  six,  in  South  Caro 
lina  under  six,  in  Indiana  nearly  five,  in  Georgia 
over  eight,  in  Illinois  nearly  nine. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  Negro  everywhere, 
many  times  oftener  than  the  White  man,  falls  into 
prison;  but  in  the  North  still  oftener  than  in  the 
South,  and  not  only  is  he  relatively  more  fre 
quently  criminal  in  the  North  —  he  is  absolutely 
so.  For,  to  judge  from  the  court  records,  the  South 
is  in  general  more  law-abiding  than  the  North. 

It  may  be  useful  here  to  give  a  table  of  the 
criminality  of  the  five  grand  divisions  in  the  cen 
sus  years  1880  and  1890,  giving  the  number  of 
prisoners  per  million  of  population,  with  the  in 
crease  of  each  division  in  ten  years ; 

1890  1880  Increase 

United  States    1,315  1,169  146 

North  Atlantic 1,624  1,425  199 

South  Atlantic 1,288  1,043  245 

North  Central 888  862  26 

South  Central       ....  1,466  1,250  216 

Western 2,221  2,199  22 

Here  the  great  North  Central  appears  by  far 
most  law-abiding.  The  reason  is,  the  criminality 
is  raised  by  foreigners  in  the  East,  by  the  Negro 
in  the  South,  by  the  adventurer  in  the  West.  On 
comparing  the  total  number  of  prisoners  North 


254  THE    COLOR    LINE 

and  South  with  the  total  populations,  we  find 
that  there  were  in  the  South  about  six  prisoners 
per  myriad  of  Whites,  and  twenty-nine  prisoners 
per  myriad  of  Blacks ;  whereas  in  the  North  were 
twelve  prisoners  per  myriad  Whites,  and  sixty- 
nine  prisoners  per  myriad  Blacks.  On  going  from 
South  to  North,  we  find  the  prison  numbers  ex 
actly  doubled  among  the  Whites,  but  much 
more  than  doubled  among  the  Blacks. 

But  our  tables  can  teach  us  still  more.  The  in 
crease  from  1880  to  1890  is  worth  attention.  In 
the  West  and  the  North  Central  region,  it  was  only 
slight  —  twenty-two  and  twenty-six  per  million; 
but  both  in  the  South  Central  and  the  South  Atlan 
tic,  it  was  very  great  —  216  and  245  per  million. 
To  whom  was  it  due  ?  To  the  Black,  or  to  the 
White  ?  In  part  to  both,  but  far  more  to  the  former. 
The  White  increase  was  only  seven  per  cent,  the 
Black  was  twenty-seven  per  cent.  Worse  than  this, 
however,  in  the  North  the  White  increase  was 
hardly  five  per  cent,  but  the  Black  increase  was 
thirty-five  per  cent  —  whence  it  appears  that  in 
criminality  the  Negro,  especially  the  educated 
Northern  Negro,  is  striding  forward  in  seven- 
league  boots. 

Closely  akin  to  this  latter  fact  is  still  another  - 
the  still  higher  criminality  of  the  Mulatto.  In  the 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  255 

whole  United  States,  the  pure  Blacks  outnumber 
the  mixed  breeds  about  six  to  one;  in  the  North 
Atlantic  division,  about  twenty  to  six,  or  three 
to  one;  in  the  South  Atlantic,  nearly  seven  to  one; 
in  the  North  Central,  over  two  to  one;  in  the 
South  Central,  about  six  to  one;  in  the  West, 
under  two  to  one.  Now  we  have  already  seen  that 
precisely  where  the  Mulattoes  most  abound,  the 
Negro  is  most  criminal.  Still  more  definitely,  we 
have  these  facts  of  the  eleventh  census  (1890). 
Of  Blacks  there  were  in  city  prisons  898  pure,  170 
mixed  —  five  to  one;  in  workhouses,  1,004  pure, 
333  mixed  —  three  to  one;  in  juvenile  reforma 
tories,  1,418  pure,  512  mixed — three  to  one ;  leased 
out  (not  in  penitentiaries),  1,700  pure,  295  mixed 
-five  to  one;  altogether,  in  penitentiaries 
10,884  pure,  3,383  mixed  —  only  three  to  one; 
whence,  it  appears,  that  the  pure  Black  exceeds 
the  Mulatto  more  in  numbers  than  in  criminals  - 
that  is,  the  Mulatto  is  the  greater  offender. 
This  result  accords  with  the  African  proverb 
quoted  by  Livingstone:  "A  god  made  the  white; 
who  made  the  black  I  know  not;  but  surely  the 
devil  made  the  mongrel." 

The  champions  of  the  oppressed  will  have 
much  to  say  in  avoidance  of  the  foregoing  —  noth 
ing,  however,  that  is  both  forceful  and  relevant. 


256  THE    COLOR    LINE 

They  may  urge  that  the  offences  of  the  Negro  are 
mainly  trivial,  that  he  is  not  to  be  judged  too 
harshly  for  his  penchant  towards  henroosts ;  that 
such  a  little  thing  as  a  chicken  must  not  be  allowed 
to  separate  him  from  civilization  and  Chris 
tianity.  But  the  facts  look  the  other  way.  The 
great  crimes  are  the  ones  that  swell  his  list;  his 
slight  offences  are  mainly  against  his  own  kith 
and  kin,  and  very  frequently  go  unpunished.  The 
court  records,  as  in  Alabama,*  show  that  he  as 
pires  to  the  heights  of  felony.  He  is  murderous,  he 
excels  in  arson,  he  forges  with  a  will.  Of  the  crime 
of  all  crimes  he  enjoys  almost  the  proud  monop 
oly,  and  he  plies  it  in  spite  of  the  swiftest,  surest, 
savagest  of  all  possible  penalties.  His  defenders 
have  here  excogitated  a  most  ingenious  plea.  This 
crime  against  woman  is  not  a  reversion  to  barbar 
ism  ;  it  is  not  a  yielding  to  ungovernable  and  brutal 
lust  —  oh,  no!  It  is,  they  say,  a  deep-studied 

*  Here  is  the  penitentiary  record  for  1900: 

Whites.  Negroes. 

Convicts 253  2,147 

For  Homicide 59  366 

"     Rape 3  41 

"     Arson 3  38 

"     Forgery 7  42 

"     Burglary 34  432 

"     Major  offences 106  919 

Population  per  felon 3,270  317 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  257 

revenge;  it  is  an  attack  by  the  oppressed  on  the 
race  of  the  oppressor.  In  the  person  of  his  victim, 
the  Black  avenger  would  hurl  defiance  and  dese 
cration  at  the  whole  tribe  of  his  persecutors.  We 
are  not  concerned  to  refute  such  nonsense.  He 
that  can  find  satisfaction  in  thus  swapping  off 
bestiality  for  diabolism,  let  him  find  it.  We 
merely  note,  in  passing,  that  the  North  has  re 
cently  shown  itself  as  little  tolerant  as  the  South 
of  such  assaults  on  the  integrity  of  the  race.  To  be 
sure,  there  are  many  crimes,  and  many  of  appall 
ing  proportions,  from  which  the  Negro  does 
greatly  abstain.  He  does  not  corrupt  legislatures, 
he  does  not  thwart  justice,  he  does  not  evade  the 
Constitution,  he  does  not  defy  the  acts  of  Con 
gress,  he  does  not  frame  tariff  schedules,  he  does 
not  assume  divine  vice-gerency,  he  does  not  water 
stock  and  crush  competition  and  servilize  millions, 
he  does  not  even  buy  and  sell  franchises,  nor  divide 
rake-offs,  nor  stuff  ballot  boxes,  nor  muzzle  the 
press,  nor  indulge  in  other  such  venialities.  But 
is  there  any  one  that  does  not  know  the  reason  ? 
The  Negro  is  not  equal  to  these  iniquities.  There 
fail  him  both  ability  and  opportunity.  But  if  any 
one  doubts  for  an  instant  that,  according  to  the 
measure  of  his  might,  he  has  improved  and  will 
improve  whatever  stray  chance  may  fall  in  his 


258  THE    COLOR   LINE 

way,  in  fashion  that  would  even  make  St.  Louis 
blush,  we  would  respectfully  recommend  to  such 
a  Nathanael  a  study  of  Presidential  nominating 
conventions  or  any  faithful  history  of  Recon 
struction. 

But  has  not  the  last  decade  abated  the  "  crimi 
nal  tendencies"  which  Professor  Dubois  so  de 
plores  ?  On  the  contrary.  Complete  reports  have 
not  yet  been  issued,  but  the  general  facts  lie  open 
to  view.  The  annual  summaries  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune  show  that  the  Negro  maintains  his  lead 
easily.  In  1902,  there  were  judicial  hangings  144: 
Negroes  85,  Whites  56,  Indians  2,  Chinaman  1 ; 
for  murder  133,  for  rape  9;  South  101,  North 
43.  There  were  lynchings,  96 :  Negroes  86,  Whites 
9,  Indian  1;  for  murder  41,  rape  30;  South  87, 
North  9.  The  number  of  lynchings  has,  indeed, 
steadily  decreased  from  235  in  1892  to  96  in 
1902  —  and  not  strangely.  Atrocious  as  such 
forms  of  rudimentary  justice  undoubtedly  are, 
and  severely  reprehensible,  to  be  condemned 
always  and  without  any  reserve,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  have  a  certain  rough  and 
horrible  virtue.  Great  is  the  insult  they  wreak 
on  the  majesty  of  the  law  and  brutalizing 
must  be  their  effect  upon  human  nature,  yet  they 
do  strike  a  salutary  terror  into  hearts  which  the 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM    NUMBERS  259 

slow  and  uncertain  steps  of  the  courts  could 
hardly  daunt.  In  witness  stands  the  fact  that 
lynch-lightning  seldom  strikes  twice  in  the  same 
district  or  community.  Such  frightful  incidents 
tend  to  repeat  themselves  at  wide  intervals,  both 
of  time  and  of  place. 

Finally,  the  whole  family  of  facts  here  assem 
bled,  especially  those  that  establish  the  greater 
and  faster  growing  criminality  of  the  Northern 
Negro,  show  clearly  that  education  is  not  the 
cure  for  his  ills.  Generation  after  generation  of 
coddling  and  sympathy  in  the  North  has  not 
effaced  a  single  racial  trait  nor  raised  by  a  single 
notch  the  average  character,  moral  or  mental  or 
physical,  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  pick  of 
their  race.  Nearly  forty  years  of  devoted  and 
enthusiastic  effort  to  elevate  and  educate  the 
Southern  Negro  lie  stretched  out  behind  us  in  a 
dead  level  of  failure.  We  grant  freely  and  gladly 
that  there  are  exceptions,  rare  and  remarkable 
enough.  But  that  the  average  of  the  Negro,  both 
moral  and  physical,  has  fallen  and  is  falling 
measurably  under  all  endeavours  to  lift  him  up, 
is  a  fact  that  shines  out  clear  in  the  light  of 
the  foregoing  statistics. 

But  not  only  is  it  a  fact  —  it  is  precisely  what 
might  have  been  expected.  A  culture,  a  civiliza- 


260  THE   COLOR   LINE 

tion,  to  be  helpful  and  healthful,  must  proceed 
from  within  and  not  from  without.  It  must  be  an 
internal  evolution,  not  an  external  imposition. 
The  impulse  may,  indeed,  be  given  by  contact ;  it 
may  proceed  from  another;  but  it  must  strike 
upon  a  nature  prepared,  responsive,  and  kindred. 
It  must  release  energies  and  potencies  already 
present  and  in  high  tension  —  it  cannot  create 
them ;  it  may  be  an  occasion,  it  cannot  be  a  cause. 
You  may  ignite  a  match  by  friction,  but  not  a 
piece  of  chalk. 

The  civilization  of  any  people  is  the  slow  and 
toilsome  growth  of  centuries,  an  unfolding  of  the 
people's  spirit  itself.  Its  virtue,  its  essence  lies  in 
this  very  fact.  How  then  shall  such  a  product  be 
imposed  upon  an  alien  and  inferior  race?  They 
cannot  receive  it;  they  can  put  it  on  only  as  an 
outer  garment;  it  can  never  become  truly  theirs, 
the  efflorescence  of  their  own  souls.  Moreover,  in 
such  foreign  vesture  they  are  clumsy  and  con 
strained;  they  cut  but  a  sorry  and  even  ridicu 
lous  figure,  like  David  in  the  armour  of  Saul. 
Well  for  them  if  it  prove  not  to  be  a  shirt  of 
Nessus. 

These  propositions  we  make  no  attempt  to 
argue  formally,  for  that  would  be  remote  from 
our  present  purpose.  We  rest  our  case  on  the  facts 


THE   ARGUMENT   FROM   NUMBERS  261 

and  figures  already  submitted.  But  we  must 
observe,  in  conclusion,  that  the  doctrine  just 
enounced  is  by  no  means  a  novelty.  Nearly  two 
thousand  years  ago,  "The  Apostle"  addressing 
the  Corinthians  declared:  "Even  so  the  things 
of  God  none  knoweth,  save  the  Spirit  of  God 
Now  a  man  of  soul  receives  not 
the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God:  for  they  are 
foolishness  unto  him ;  and  he  can  not  know  them, 
because  they  are  spiritually  discerned. " 


THE  END 


THE  MCCLLRE  PRESS,   NEW  YORK 


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prior  to  due  date 


DUE  AS 


AS  STAMP 


ED  BELOW 


1?  Wft 


I 


YB  26764 


I 


BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


